


The Christmas Contract AU

by Bunny268



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Contract AU, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Party, Christmas market, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Lawyer Lydia Martin, M/M, Sort Of, Web Designer Stiles Stilinski, Writer Derek Hale, not really enemies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-13
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-24 17:01:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 40,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21781396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bunny268/pseuds/Bunny268
Summary: Stiles Stilinski is headed home to Louisiana for Christmas, only it turns out so is his ex-boyfriend Isaac and he is bringing a hot new boyfriend with him. His best friend Lydia somehow convinces him to bring her big brother home with him to pose as his boyfriend and make things less awkward. Unfortunately, he and Derek don't exactly get along usually, so who knows what will happen when they are forced to spend so much time together pretending to be in a relationship.
Relationships: Allison Argent/Scott McCall, Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Isaac Lahey/Jackson Whittemore, Lydia Martin/Jordan Parrish, Melissa McCall/Sheriff Stilinski
Comments: 68
Kudos: 411





	1. The Contract

**Author's Note:**

> About a year ago I saw The Christmas Contract for the first time and immediately thought it felt like I was watching a fanfiction come to life, all I could picture was Stiles and Derek in this world and so I started writing my own version. Of course, then Christmas was over and though I revisited it (and the film!) throughout the year I didn't finish it. With Christmas coming up again I have found myself inspired and it's nearly finished, I only have about 2 more chapters to write.  
> So I've decided to post one chapter a day for the 12 days of Christmas with the last one being posted on Christmas Eve (hopefully!).  
> I hope that someone will enjoy this, but even if not I have had a great time writing it, it's the longest thing I've ever written and while I take that with a grain of salt since it's based on something that already exists so I had a blueprint for the story I'm still really happy with it. It's make me feel Christmassy and I hope it makes you feel that way too.
> 
> Without further ado here is Chapter One.

Chapter 1 – The Contract

Derek pulled his duffle coat tighter around him as he got off the subway near to Lydia's apartment. He missed his leather jacket but it was much too cold in New York at Christmas to risk wearing it in December. The one year he tried he had come down with the flu so bad that Lydia had scolded him for weeks after he recovered, so it just wasn't worth it.  
Walking past the Rockefeller Centre on the way to Lydia's fifth avenue apartment was always a treat at this time of year despite the cold, it was worth getting off the train from Tribeca and walking rather than changing from the 2 to the A train.  
Derek took in the lights and the decorations, and breathed in the smell of the ice, listening to the sound of laughter from families skating together mixed in with the Christmas music. Not for the first time he was jealous. He loved Christmas, and what little sadness he felt at not having a partner to share it with he was able to brush aside by celebrating with his family usually.  
Ordinarily, a family Christmas with Lydia and his adopted parents was enough to pull him out of any funk, even though he missed his biological parents at this time of year. But this year Susan and Richard were taking a cruise and wouldn't here for Christmas. And even Lydia was abandoning him as she and Jordan were spending their first Christmas as a married couple with his parents in Virginia.  
So for the first time in years, Derek would be alone for Christmas. It just made it that much more difficult being single at the happiest time of year when being single truly meant being alone.  
He had made the decision to ignore the holiday and get some writing done, but first, he had to get through Lydia's annual holiday party.  
He hated it. It wasn't the fact that it was a Christmas party, and he loved seeing his sister and her husband Jordan they were good people, but it was the socialising that drove him crazy. There was a reason he chose to be a writer. It's not that he didn't like people, it's just that he had never been particularly good at making polite conversation, he wished he could talk to people easily but it just wasn't his area of expertise.  
"Derek!" Lydia exclaimed as she wrenched open the door to her apartment. After a brief hug, she turned abruptly back to walk through the hallway and called out to Jordan inside "Don't worry, it's just Derek".  
"Oh thanks, Lydia, don't sound too excited" he replied following her through to the living area spotting Stiles sitting at the kitchen table working at his laptop. Fantastic, of course, Stiles was already here, of all the people Derek had trouble making small talk with Stiles was the hardest. Not because he didn't want to, he actually wished he could talk more with the amber-eyed man who was so close to his sister he almost seemed to be another brother to her. But he found Stiles so intimidating, he was brilliant and so full of energy that Derek could never seem to find the right words to say, and somehow they ended up bickering more often than not and Derek was left wondering exactly how it had happened. Of course it didn’t help matters any that he was just the right combination of lean and muscular, with the kind of face that made Derek want to sit up and beg for attention.  
Stiles looked up from his laptop and they made eye contact for just a moment, and Derek felt that familiar zing of excitement at seeing him before he looked away just as swiftly.

~~~ ****~~~

Stiles carried through the cheese plate from the kitchen to the long table that Lydia had elegantly decorated with white lights and silver and red garlands. Looking up he noticed Derek sitting in one of the chairs at the other end of the living room, one foot resting on the knee of the other and wrapped up in a novel. Releasing a sigh at the sight of his best friends brother once again absorbed in a book and not engaging in a social situation he decided that he couldn't just let this slide.  
"No don't get up Derek, please, I've got this" he mocked, sarcasm dripping from every word.  
Derek glanced up from his book, spine bent back and clearly very well-read, and Stiles could finally see more than just the top of his dark head of hair. Not that he particularly wanted to, he told himself, chiselled good looks didn’t make up for an antisocial personality, and neither did his muscular build, or the fact that when he bothered to smile it was so amazing it could light up a room, absolutely not.  
"No problem Stiles" he replied with just as much sarcasm.  
"Derek gets a pass because he showed up" Lydia chimed in as she and Jordan followed in behind him carrying glasses and wine.  
"Seriously? That's the standard he's held to, showing up?" the disbelief was clear in Stiles' tone, here he was running back and forth to the kitchen bringing in appetisers and Derek was allowed to just sit on his ass and read!  
"We made a deal, I show up and I don't have to help decorate" Derek replied, looking smug.  
There! That was why they never made it through a conversation without bickering, Stiles thought. Because Derek was a smug, self-satisfied, ass. Never mind that he looked like he was chiselled from stone, or that his eyes were some sort of maddening mixture of green and brown that made you want to stare at them for hours to try to figure out exactly what that colour was. He drove Stiles crazy, and the feeling seemed to be mutual.  
Stiles rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to continue complaining, he had a good comment on the tip of his tongue about slave labour and lazy-ass brothers, but Lydia cut him off with a sharp look. She flipped her strawberry blonde hair over one shoulder and looked between the two of them disapprovingly.  
"I don't want a repeat of my wedding where the two of you spent the whole reception fighting over who should give the last toast".  
"I'm her brother, and a writer, it should have been me" Derek claimed, quickly reigniting the argument.  
"I was the man-of-honour" Stiles shot back, and was cut off just as quickly by Derek's raised voice replying "That's not even a thing!" before Jordan cleared his throat and they both looked over to see Lydia with a steely look in her green eyes. Suddenly they thought better of continuing this argument for the thousandth time. Rolling their eyes almost simultaneously, Derek returned to his book and Stiles walked over to Lydia his gaze apologetic. He might enjoy arguing with her older adopted brother, but he knew it drove his best friend nuts so he could hold his tongue for her. It was Christmas after all.  
"Just be pleasant when the guests arrive alright?"  
Lydia pointed to the sofa sternly demanding that Stiles sit down and then began grilling him about why he was being moody.  
"Derek is being plenty moody" was the best defence he could come up with, which to be honest was pathetic.  
"Him? He's always a grump. Why are you so fussy? Are you not excited about going home?"  
"Yeah... about that" Stiles said with a small sigh.  
"What? You're not going home?" Lydia questioned, her brow furrowing in concern.  
"No, I am. But so is Isaac. And his new boyfriend" Stiles replied cringing as he said the words.  
"What? Already! It's only been six months." Lydia was outraged for her best friend, he and his ex hadn't seen each other since the break-up, and for the first time they saw each other again to involve a new partner seemed distasteful. Particularly at Christmas. Lydia didn't necessarily think the breakup was the wrong decision, but it hurt Stiles so that automatically put Isaac in her bad books, if he made it worse then he would have to answer to her.  
"Yeah, I know, I was already freaked out about having to see him again. And now I'm going to have to hang out with him, and his boyfriend, the whole time." Stiles looked miserable.  
"Do you have to see him?"  
"Yeah. Our Dad's are getting this big award because they've been putting on the Christmas Market for like 30 years now so the Major wants to give them keys to the city or something. And our parents do this big bonfire every year right before Christmas Eve. They've been doing it since we were kids."  
"Any chance of breaking those traditions?" Lydia asked looking somehow hopeful and doubtful at the same time, it was a talent really.  
"I mean, I could probably skip that bonfire. But no, the Christmas Market is really special to my family, and me." Stiles replied, there was no way he was going to miss his Dad getting the key to the city just to save face with Isaac, it wasn't worth it.  
Derek glanced up from his book hearing Stiles' words from across the room. It was moments like this that made him wish that he could really talk to Stiles, actually get to know him. The little glimpses of his character that he had gotten over the years by being around while he spent time with Lydia made it clear that Stiles was a genuinely good person, loyal to a fault and really close to his family.  
"What if you bring a date?" Lydia said, jolting Derek out of his reverie. He pulled his eyes away from the back of Stiles' head and back to his book, but he couldn't help listening to the rest of their conversation.  
"Oh yeah" Stiles replied sarcastically, "I'll just go get a date real fast. Every guy I know is either married or related to me!" he pulled a grimace before Lydia could latch on to that idea – relations were out!  
Clearly, Stiles was not as enthusiastic about this plan as Lydia, and Derek let out an unexpected sigh of relief which he chose not to think too hard about.  
"Alright. It's going to be okay. We'll think of something." Lydia concluded, brow furrowing as she tried to come up with a solution for her friend. She really was a kind person, despite how cold she could sometimes come off.  
They sat for a moment looking at each other before they were interrupted by the door and party guests began to arrive forcing them to table the issue for later discussion.

~~~ ****~~~  
The party was in full flow, glasses being emptied and refilled in short order, instrumental Christmas music played in the background and Stiles was pleasantly keeping his mind from his earlier conversation with Lydia by sublimating with the party food. That was until she decided to corner him and revisit the subject.  
"Come on Stiles" she muttered as she pulled Stiles to one side away from the other guests "we are going to find you a date".  
Stiles rolled his eyes but knew better than to resist Lydia as she glanced around the room taking in potential targets. First, she pinpointed a perfectly nice guy, who was also wearing a wedding ring so not an option. Her next suggestion Stiles had to remind her was actually a relative of his, a cousin who had moved to the city just a few months ago that Stiles had invited to introduce him around.  
She glanced around the room one more time, getting a little disheartened now but not ready to give up when someone caught her eye and her face lit up "Bingo!". Stiles turned to see what was wrong with her next suggestion only to find her gaze on the last person he would want to ask for help.  
"Derek!" Lydia called out and strode over to him, interrupting him in conversation with a mutual friend from their college days as he turned to see what she needed him for.  
"What were your plans for the holidays again?" She asked seemingly apropos of nothing "You know with Mom and Dad on their cruise in the Caribbean, and me going to Virginia with Jordan?"  
"I feel like you've scolded me for this already" he replied wearily, sensing a trap "but I don't have any plans, I'm just going to write." Derek tried to sound firm as he said it, wanting to head off whatever his scheming sister had in mind for him. Predictably she ignored him and turned back to Stiles who was waiting behind her looking somewhat sheepish - another bad sign. Given the conversation he had overheard earlier Derek had a feeling he knew where they were heading with this topic and he was fairly certain he wasn't going to like it.  
"You should go home with Stiles," Lydia said decisively, likely hoping to steam-roll him into agreeing without any argument.  
"What?"  
"You know, spend Christmas in Louisiana with the Stilinski's." Lydia clarified, far too nonchalantly to be believable.  
"What?" Stiles echoed as Derek frowned in his direction as though this was somehow his fault. Those eyebrows were dangerous and Stiles did not deserve their judgement right now.  
"You're always saying you want to travel more" she went on.  
"Yeah. Alone."  
"You can be alone at any time."  
"What am I missing?" Jordan asked joining them from the kitchen with a bottle of wine to refill guests drinks as he made the rounds.  
"What Lydia is doing, with the subtlety of a baboon I might add, is trying to get me a date for Christmas because Isaac is bringing his new cute boyfriend home with him" Stiles filled him in. "You don't have to go with me to Louisiana" he reassured Derek and his eyebrows, concerned that the brooding writer might think this was some sort of ploy on his part rather than one of Lydia's ill-advised plans. The last thing he needed was Derek thinking he was trying to manipulate him into spending time with him.  
"Oh, you should go," Jordan said cheerfully, when Derek looked at him disbelievingly he nodded his head in confirmation "listen, the food alone is worth the trip". Amazing, only Jordan could make this decision seem so simple. Stiles shook his head at Lydia's husband, he should know better than to encourage her.  
"Jordan!" Stiles said shaking his head at his friend.  
"Exactly! And you can write from anywhere." She reminded him, as though that was the deciding factor. Amazingly Derek looked like he might actually be considering the idea, Lydia was a force to be reckoned with.  
Stiles jumped in before the redhead could bully her brother any further. "Guy's he would be like pretending to be my boyfriend! That's, it's weird!" He caught Derek's eye as he spoke, then realised how that might sound.  
"I'm weird?"  
"No, I mean you're not... you're not weird." He tried to clarify "But the situation is weird..." he trailed off as he felt like every word might just be pushing his foot further into his mouth. Fortunately, Derek only looked mildly offended, which to be fair was more or less his default setting when Stiles was talking.  
"See, there you go, you already sound like a couple" Jordan chipped in.  
"No we don't" they replied in unison before sharing a sceptical look.  
"Okay, what if it’s more like a buffer than a boyfriend?" Lydia stepped in, looking beseechingly between the two of them. "You know, a plus one to make it less... awkward."  
"Oh less awkward?" Stiles questioned sarcastically. How could this possibly make things less awkward? He and Derek would probably fight the whole time if he did come, and lying to his family didn't seem like the smartest idea Lydia had ever had. He was beginning to question her usually stellar advice.  
"Exactly. But baby, what would Derek be getting out of this?" Jordan continued on as though Stiles hadn't made a very valid point with his disbelieving face.  
"Yeah, what would Derek be getting out of this?" He questioned with a smirk, there was absolutely no way he was going along with this but Stiles looked so uncomfortable he just had to throw more fuel on the fire.  
"The joy of knowing that you're helping out a friend." Now Stiles knew that Lydia had lost her mind. That was the weakest argument she had ever made. As a lawyer, she had to know that she wasn't winning this case, but she was persevering because she felt bad for Stiles, which by the way made him feel even more pathetic.  
"Ooh, hard pass," Derek thought for a moment before realising that there was something Stiles could do for him. "Actually, I could use a website for my novel," he said raising his eyebrows at Stiles in question.  
"Yes perfect" Lydia looked at him hopefully, she clearly thought the problem was solved. No, no way, this was not happening.  
"No, I mean no offence but you're just not the most reliable guy."  
"What does that mean?"  
"I'm sorry, do you not remember? What was that, five months ago?" he said accusingly.  
"Okay wait, what am I missing?" Jordan questioned as Derek rolled his eyes at the implication, not even having the grace to look sheepish.  
"She didn't tell you?" Stiles couldn't believe it, but hey if it gave him a chance to openly mock Lydia's flaky brother then he would take the opportunity.  
"Jordan! Okay when I moved here like six months ago, Lydia thought it would be a great idea to set me up with her brother because I didn't know anybody. Only Derek stood me up!" he finished gleefully trying to seem unaffected.  
Truthfully, coming off the heels of his breakup with Isaac he hadn't been in a place to start something new. But it still hurt, more than it probably should have, and he would be lying if he said he hadn't wondered sometimes what exactly Derek disliked so much about him.  
"Ah no! I did not, I did not stand you up, I called and cancelled there is a VERY big difference!" Derek defended. He hated that this was the impression Stiles had of him, but it would be much more difficult to explain the real reason he had cancelled their date.  
"Either way you flaked! So how do I know I'm not gonna put all this work into a website and then you just won't show up at the airport?" Stiles said firmly, crossing the room towards the bay windows. He had to get out of this conversation.  
"You know, if I was at the office this would be a quick fix," Lydia stated calmly. Stiles could not believe she hadn't let this go yet.  
"What do you mean?"  
"Easy. I'd write a contract." Seeing their reluctant faces she powered on regardless, ignoring Stiles' scoff.  
"Oh, come on you could both sign. Let me do this, they didn't give me that fancy law degree for nothing!" The large loft apartment they were standing in was a testament to how good Lydia was at her job, but it was sort of insulting how little effort she felt she needed to put in here to convince them. Stiles at least would be a harder nut to crack than this.  
"No," he said and started to walk away further, hand rubbing the back of his neck where he could feel it turning red with embarrassment that Lydia was taking this so far.  
"Derek?!" She appealed to her older brother. "Come on, you'd get a website, he'd get a date, everyone wins."  
"I'm sorry, but you know I was planning on writing alone this Christmas…" Derek shrugged.  
"See there you guys go, we're good." Stiles cut him off and put an end to this conversation before shame could swallow him whole, he couldn't even get a pity date with the guy. He turned to the window and feigned interest in looking out at the view he'd only seen a thousand times as he sipped his wine and tried will away the tears pricking at his eyes.  
Lydia gave Derek a disapproving look, but he just sighed with a shrug. What was he supposed to do? Stiles clearly didn't want him there any more than he wanted to go. He didn't need some fake knight in shining armour, he needed to find someone who could be worthy of bringing home for Christmas and Derek was just not that guy.  
~~~ ****~~~  
Two mornings later the whole situation was still playing on Derek's mind as he headed in to meet his literary agent. He was hoping for some good news, but to be honest, these meetings were usually a little fruitless lately and he needed something to change. So he was planning to push a little harder today, he needed to get his own work out there.  
Unfortunately, his mind was a little distracted by the conversation at his sister's party. The rest of the night had been unremarkable and Stiles had stood facing the window for a few minutes before rejoining the rest of the group and seeming absolutely fine.  
However, despite appearances, Derek just was not convinced that Stiles was as unaffected as he seemed and it had been playing on his mind ever since. He felt like he was letting his sister and her best friend down, but he didn't see how bringing him home to meet Stiles' family would help make a better impression than going alone. Derek was nothing to write home about, quite literally, and he doubted that being himself would make Stiles' ex jealous.  
Obviously, Derek knew what he looked like, he had been in enough relationships to be aware he was plenty good looking enough to keep someone's interest for a short while. It was his personality that usually drove people off, he was quiet and didn't express his feelings well which had ended more than one of his past relationships.  
"I have something, but you're not going to like it," his agent told him once they were settled into her office and the pleasantries had been exchanged. They had finally gotten down to business, but it seemed like it was going to be the same old dance.  
"You realise you say that every time we have a meeting?" he replied, exasperated.  
"It's a ghostwriting gig, and I know how you feel about ghostwriting."  
"Yeah. I'm over it. I want to write my own stuff." He reminded Kelly for what felt like the millionth time. He'd done plenty of ghostwriting in the last five years, he was so far past done with writing other people's ideas.  
"Okay, I'll tell you what. You write this one for me, and I'll try to get some real traction with your novel." She handed over a manila folder to him which contained the plot points required for this project.  
"Is this a romance?" He asked in confusion. "You know I don't do romance." In writing or in real life if truth be told he thought to himself.  
"You can do it! I believe in you." Kelly pushed as he looked at her sceptically.  
He studied the packet a little further and it seemed familiar. "Is this one of those Parker Halliwell novels?" he asked "Those are terrible" he added at her nod.  
"He's gotten a little lazy." She agreed reluctantly.  
"Dance under the stars? Profess love in a passionate speech?" He read from the list his voice rising in disbelief. "That one's original! This isn't a plot, this is a terrible to-do list!"  
"Here read this" Kelly passed him another Parker Halliwell novel. Swell, now he had to read this drivel as well.  
"Just have the characters do everything on that list, and follow the same plot as all his other novels. This one just has to be set in Louisiana."  
"Did you say Louisiana?" He looked up in surprise. Unbelievable.  
Half an hour later when he had finished up his meeting and was headed out of the building, he called Lydia before he could second guess his decision.  
"Hey sis, I was thinking about your offer to go to Louisiana with Stiles..."  
He was probably going to regret this, but to be honest he had been feeling guilty about brushing the idea off anyway and the fact that visiting Stiles' home town might help him writing his latest project (and he was going to need all the help he could get on this one) just seemed like a sign. In no way was he using this as an excuse to spend time with the intriguing but elusive man he would be travelling with, obviously.  
~~~ ****~~~  
Stiles knocked on Lydia's office door and opened it a little. He was slightly out of breath as he poked his head through the door, but he didn't wait for her to answer because she had said it was an emergency. However he was confused as he walked into the room further because Lydia was sitting behind her desk looking completely calm, and her big brother was sitting across from her looking about as uncomfortable as Stiles had ever seen him.  
"You texted me that it was an emergency and I had to come over right away, what's he doing here?" He was immediately suspicious. Anything that Lydia felt the need to lie about to get Stiles here and that involved her gorgeous grump of an older sibling, could not be good news. He took a seat beside Derek because he wasn't sure what else to do with himself.  
"It is an emergency. The two people I care most about in the world are in trouble and they need my help." Lydia looked entirely serious.  
Stiles held back his scoff, but Derek wasn't so kind.  
"Stiles, my best friend, my beautiful genius, my sad lonely broken-hearted bestie. Needs help getting over his breakup, and a distraction to keep his Christmas jolly." Stiles rolled his eyes. That was being a little dramatic, he was definitely over Isaac. Mostly. He hoped.  
"And Derek, my brilliant big brother, needs to rescue his somewhat languishing career and rebrand himself as, not a ghostwriter, but a 'proper novelist'." She used air quotes and even Stiles thought that was a little harsh.  
"Okay, are you done?" Derek said, trying not to look at Stiles. It's not like he needed the reminder that Derek wasn't exactly the most successful guy.  
"So, I've written this." She went on as though Derek hadn't spoken. "The Christmas Contract."  
At this point, Stiles felt he had to jump in. "I thought I asked you to drop this? And besides, I think your brother made it quite clear the other night that he had no interest, so." Lydia was starting to drive him nuts with this now. Did she not embarrass Stiles enough at the party, she felt the need to call him to be further humiliated in front of her infuriatingly good looking brother?  
"Actually, I was thinking about it and it could be good for both of us." Derek chipped in, trying to seem casual and not at all like he anything invested in Stiles agreeing to this, least of all any feelings on the subject.  
Stiles turned to him in shock. He couldn't believe this, and he actually wasn't sure if it was better or worse now that Derek was on board.  
Worse. Definitely worse.  
"No." He stated emphatically, it wasn't worth it.  
"I thought you might say that," Lydia said cryptically, picking up her phone from the desk.  
"Isaac posted this on social media last night." She finished, turning her phone to show Stiles a picture of Isaac cuddled up with Jackson, his new boyfriend, looking disgustingly happy.  
Damn.  
"Where do I sign?" he said with a sigh of resignation.  
A few moments later they had both signed the bottom of the contract and Lydia had left to make them each a copy, giving them a moment alone.  
Stiles turned to Derek, thinking he should maybe thank him or apologise or something, only to find him reading.  
"Is that a Parker Halliwell novel?" Stiles tried anyway, feeling a little ridiculous talking to the top of Derek's head.  
"Uh-huh."  
Brilliant. Not exactly the start of a sparkling conversation.  
"You don't find those a little..."  
"Cheesy? Yep."  
"Well, my Mom likes them so..." Stiles trailed off again, feeling as though he was talking to the wall.  
"Hmmm." Was the only response he got and Derek had yet to look up from the creased novel in his hands.  
"You know you're going to have to speak to my family? You can't just sit in a corner and read." Irritation was creeping into Stiles' voice and he was already wondering if he had just made a mistake.  
"Yup."  
"So... what are we doing right now?" he continued in annoyance.  
"Do you see your family right now?!" Derek responded, finally looking up from his book frustrated that he was being forced to address Stiles directly. He looked back down to his book almost immediately leaving Stiles to shake his head in disbelief. Trying to avoid showing any emotions wasn’t easy with Stiles staring at him, but he was a little nervous now that he had managed to agree to this and he felt he ought to set Stiles’ expectations low so that he didn’t find himself too disappointed when Derek wasn’t able to impress his family.  
"Yeah, this is going to go really well," Stiles thought out loud. He sighed sitting back in his chair and already regretting agreeing to this. Derek didn’t exactly seem invested in this situation and so this was probably going to be a disaster.  
Just then Lydia returned handing them both a copy of the contract and Stiles took the opportunity to escape before he could think better of his decision and rip the piece of paper in his hands to shreds. He would have dearly loved to have the courage to do that, but he couldn't bring himself to. The idea of having to face Isaac alone while he snuggled up with his new 'beau' was enough to make him want to throw up so he sucked it up and finalised the plans for their trip home.


	2. Homecoming

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Derek and Stiles make their arrival in Louisiana and meet Stiles' family. An early encounter with the ex-boyfriend Stiles was trying to avoid and some questions at the dinner table make for a rockier start than they hoped for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here you go! Chapter two as promised. This one is a little shorter, and we are throwing our favourite guys right into the fire so let's see how they do.
> 
> Please leave a comment if you are enjoying :). I'm trying hard to get this finished before Christmas and I only have about two chapters to go so I promise to make sure there is a new chapter every day until then.

Driving along Main Street in his Father's old pick up Stiles gazed out the window taking in the sights of home. The flight had been brief and quiet, which was unusual since Stiles was seldom reserved. He figured he should give Derek a break on the way in, however, since he was about to spend days with Stiles and his family talking non-stop.

"It's good to have you home kid." His dad spoke just at that moment, reinforcing his earlier thought.

"Good to be here Pops" Stiles replied without hesitation. Even with everything going on he was so glad to be home with his family for Christmas.

"It's nice to have you here too Derek" his dad continued. "We've had Lydia up here a few times, she's a great girl, smart as a whip, good people."

Stiles looked over his shoulder into the back of the truck when he didn't hear a response. Derek was still lost in his book so Stiles reached over and gave his knee a quick nudge to get his attention.

"Yeah, uh it's good to be here." He replied as he looked up sharply, realising he was being spoken to. Derek closed his book and set it aside a little sheepishly.

Stiles rolled his eyes and then looked back to his dad to check if he had noticed, but there didn't seem to be any indication he was irritated so hopefully they had gotten away with it.

Just then Stiles heard the advertisement on the radio for the Christmas Market and gave his dad a nudge and raised his eyebrows in excitement at the reminder of the 30th Anniversary of the market.

When they arrived back at the house they were inundated with greetings, everyone wanting to catch up with Stiles and meet his new boyfriend. He'd thought about telling them the truth, letting them know that he was just bringing Derek home as a friend and but not to mention that to Isaac. But in the end, he'd decided not to put them in that position. They had known Isaac since he was a baby, and their families had always been close, it didn't seem fair to ask them to lie for the sake of Stiles' pride.

"Stiles!" Scott called out to him, coming from the dining room where he was helping to set out their Mom's Christmas decorations. Stiles ran up to him from the hallway and they met halfway in a tight hug. It had been far too long since he had seen his brother, and though they Skyped regularly it was never the same as getting a great big hug from him.

"Hey Scott, big brother, how are you?" Stiles asked as he pulled away to nod to Scott's wife Allison and give his niece Paige a hug as well.

"I'm good, but you have to introduce me to your new boyfriend! Our nice surprise" Scott gushed looking over at Derek in interest. Great, so his family was excited to meet the new man in his life, which shouldn't have surprised Stiles but somehow did considering how attached they all were to Isaac. That just made him feel even worse about lying to them, but there wasn't any way for him to back out now.

Stiles forced the smile to stay on his face as he turned back to Derek and introduced him to the rest of the family before taking him through to the kitchen area to see Melissa. 

"Hi, Mom." He said wrapping her up in his arms. He still felt a twinge when he called her that, but it was right. She had always been like a second mom to him, even when he and Scott were growing up and lived in different houses. After Stiles' Mom died she had been there for him in ways he hadn't even known he needed, and when she and his Dad got married 5 years later it took him a while to get comfortable with it but he knew that his Mom wouldn't have been upset with him for thinking of her as another mother.

"Hi Mrs Stilinksi" Derek greeted, and she pulled him in for a swift hug before telling him to call her Melissa.

"Well, we'll let you all settle in and see you in a bit." Melissa nodded towards the stairs for them to put their bags away. They accepted gratefully and headed for the staircase, but Derek barely had a foot on the bottom step before John was calling him back.  
"Derek, you're down here." He said gesturing to a doorway at the foot of the stairs and Derek spared Stiles a glance as he pulled a face in sympathy, before he headed into the room to set down his bags.  
It was a little embarrassing but in the end, it was probably for the best, at least this way they wouldn't be worried about sharing a bed.

~~~ ****~~~

Later they joined the rest of the family in the den and Derek wandered over to the dining table to look at all the decorations set out to dry on top of it and inspecting them for a moment while Stiles caught up a little with his Step-Mom as Allison and Paige sat down on the sofa in the den to read a story together.

"These are really good" Derek commented in a quiet moment, and Stiles chuckled and explained that Melissa made them.

"Yep, she has a stall at the Christmas Market" he sounded really proud, but Melissa was being modest. 

"Just a little one." She said quietly, but Stiles was having none of it.

"Just a little one? She sells out every year. Ornament Noel."

Melissa was just beginning to press Stiles for some information about his new boyfriend and wow was that weird, when the doorbell rang so he took the opportunity to answer it and escape the questions for a moment. This was going to be a long week.

He pulled open the door with a smile, and his face fell slightly as he realised who was on the other side.

"Isaac, hi." He looked the same, not that Stiles hadn't seen pictures of him online since the breakup. Still as tall as ever and a blonde curly mop of hair perfectly coiffed.

"Stiles." Isaac seemed surprised to see him "We didn't think you were getting in until tomorrow."

Clearly, that surprise was faked, there was absolutely no way it wasn't common knowledge with the locals that Stiles was coming home today. He hadn’t changed his plans, and his folks had known for weeks.

They stared at each other for just a moment before Stiles pulled his eyes away and looked over his Isaac's shoulder at the stocky and muscular Abercromby and Fitch model-like man behind him.

"Oh, this is my boyfriend, Jackson" Isaac introduced at last.

"Nice to meet you," Stiles replied keeping things as polite as possible.

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name" Jackson replied, and Stiles couldn't tell if he really didn't know who he was or if he was just being a jerk about it on purpose. Looking at Isaac's sheepish face it seemed like it might be the former, which was just peachy. He hadn't even bothered to tell his new boy toy about his ex before they turned up on his doorstep.

"Stiles," he said putting his hand out and shaking Jacksons, noting there wasn't even a flicker of recognition in his steel-blue eyes, as Isaac informed him that they were there to drop off some things for the market.

"Oh yeah, come on through," he said leading them into the living area to see his dad.

The whole family greeted Isaac warmly and even Paige ran up to hug him as Stiles walked straight up to Derek who was now sitting at the long dining table. He collapsed onto Derek's lap and wrapped his arms around his neck and strong shoulders. Derek looked confused for a moment so Stiles smiled toothily at him and said: "Just go with it."

Just then Isaac turned to introduce himself to Derek.

"Derek" he replied, "I'd shake your hand, but he's sitting on mine" he joked.

"Oh, ha-ha." Stiles forced a laugh feeling awkward, and sprung off of Derek's lap feeling like their inability to feel comfortable in each other's personal space was far too obvious.

Derek shook Isaac's hand and before they could size each other up too much John appeared behind Stiles and he and Stiles father and brother went out to the car to unload. Derek called out an offer to help, but John declined and when they came back in Isaac had taken off taking his pretty boy with him. All in all, it wasn't too awkward, but it was so brief that didn't necessarily mean the worst was over.

Regardless, Stiles let out a breath that they had gotten through the encounter unscathed and pulled Derek over into the sitting area to get more comfortable and showed him some more of Melissa's decorations to distract them both from things they couldn't talk about right now. Stiles was quickly realising that they had woefully underprepared for the challenges they were about to face and they would need to have a private conversation soon to get things straightened out.

~~~ ****~~~

A short while later the family were gathered in clusters around the living area decorating and chatting about the holiday when a familiar song began to play and Melissa looked up, her features brightening even further and a smile spreading across her face. John spotted her and without hesitation took her hand and led her toward the middle of the room to begin dancing.

Almost immediately Scott joined them from the kitchen where he had been retrieving drinks and swept Alison to him by the waist before swinging her around the room to the music. Stiles watched them with a small smile on his face, clearly soaking up the joy in his family, and Derek watched him. The soft smile on his face gave him a sort of glow, warm and happy, Derek was enthralled, he felt his breath catch for a moment before he shook it off.

Quickly he looked down at the ornament he was holding before Stiles could turn back and catch the naked attraction he was sure was broadcast all over his face. The last thing he needed right now was to make matters more complicated by making his supposed boyfriend uncomfortable within the first hour of being in his family home.

Unfortunately, the rest of Stiles' family not being aware of their ruse meant that they were about to be pulled into another situation that they were neither prepared for nor comfortable with. 

Melissa called out to them that they should join in the dancing, and they looked at each other for a moment and seemed to simultaneously decide that trying to get out of it would be far more conspicuous. So they reluctantly drew themselves to their feet and moved towards the centre of the room.

Derek held out his arms for Stiles to step into, and as he did so although it was a little stilted the older man was surprised at how natural it felt to hold the lithe body of this man. It had been a long time since he had been with a man, having dated women more recently, but he didn't remember ever feeling like dancing came naturally when he had done. 

He had taken his first boyfriend to prom, and it might have been something to do with being 17 and still growing into his limbs, but he remembered he and Danny having a lot more trouble with where to put their hands and who should lead. With Stiles he didn't even think about it, they fell into a rhythm and moved together, more gracefully than he would have thought the young man was capable of given his giraffe-like arms and legs and propensity to trip over thin air.

While they moved slowly to the music Stiles leaned towards Derek and murmured low enough that the rest of the family wouldn't hear.

"By the way, this is my favourite song." Okay, so that explained why Melissa had been so insistent they dance.

"Okay, seems like something I should know?" Derek questioned, hoping that Stiles would provide more information.

"It's called 'When I see you, I see home' by Tyler Hilton. He's playing at the Christmas Market this year." Stiles informed him with a small smile. 

"When I see you, I see home, Tyler Hilton. Right, got it." Derek repeated back trying to memorise it for later use. He had a pretty good memory so he should be fine, but he definitely needed to get some more of these details from Stiles later. He was kicking himself and got the sense Stiles was too, for not thinking about the fact that despite knowing each other by association via Lydia for the better part of a decade, they didn't know very much about each other.

Derek resigned himself to grilling his partner in deception later when they had a moment alone and tried to go back to their surprisingly enjoyable dance. Once again luck was not on his side.

Allison appeared next to them, having been encouraged by Melissa to get a picture of them dancing on their first Christmas together, which would have been fine if they hadn't unwittingly moved underneath the mistletoe just at that moment.

"Oh, you're under the mistletoe, look!" Allison exclaimed excitedly "You have to kiss."

Of course, they were completely unprepared for this. They had briefly discussed physical displays of affection, and Stiles had assured Derek that it wouldn't be called for any further than an occasional hug or possibly handholding. So much for that theory.

He looked to Stiles for guidance, but he looked just as lost. So as they were trying to get closer together for the picture anyway, Derek pushed his face against Stiles and pursed his lips. He could feel Stiles mirroring his movements, and was sure they looked utterly ridiculous, but Allison seemed to realise that they weren't going to provide her with a better shot so she took the photo with a slight sigh and moved away.

Moving away from each other slightly both men let their breaths out in a rush of air, gazes connecting as they shared a look of relief that they had managed to avoid yet another awkward moment. Derek was quickly realising that he had bitten off more than he could chew here, but there was little to be done about it now.

They stood for a short while, still holding each other from the dance, still looking into each other's eyes and still beneath the mistletoe. Just for a second, Derek allowed himself to wonder what might happen if he did kiss Stiles, and he searched the young man's amber eyes for any hint that he might be imagining it too. 

Before he could get too lost in the moment and cross any lines however, Scott called out that lunch was ready and the spell was broken. Stiles dropped his gaze and his arms fell away as he moved toward the table calling out to Paige that she had better not hog the biscuits like always. Derek felt strangely cold and bereft, but he shook it off quickly and followed them all through to eat.

~~~ ****~~~

Over lunch, the inevitable questions began, and Derek cursed himself and Stiles (but mostly Stiles) for not thinking this through better.

"So Derek, what do you do?" John asked, and Derek was relieved this was an easy enough question to answer.

"Well, I'm a writer actually."

"Oh really, that's interesting. What kind of things do you write?"

"Mostly thrillers." He responded, glad that they hadn't given the impression that they felt that writing was an unstable career. Derek wasn't willing to think too hard about why getting the approval of these people was so important to him, but it was.

"Really?" Stiles asked him looking interested, before realising abruptly that he obviously ought to know this information. "I mean, yeah, usually." Nice save Stiles, real smooth.

"So how did you two get together, who asked who out?" Melissa asked looking between the two of them. 

"I did" they both responded. This was where it was going to get tricky, and they had failed at the first hurdle.

"Well you did" Stiles continued looked a little desperately at Derek, " but I did also." Big help.

"At the same time?" Scott looked confused, and for a good reason, to be honest, it made literally no sense.

"Well, we had both text Lydia that we were interested, and she made the connection." Derek threw in, hoping that it might be slightly more believable.

"Yeah, so we were connected, simultaneously" Stiles latched on quickly.  
"Right, okay." Scott still had a confused puppy look on his face but seemed to have accepted their explanation for now at least as he decided to ask next what they had done on their first date.

This at least Derek sort of had an answer for. Well, when they had arranged their date a few months back he had actually had a plan for the evening. And though he hadn't gone through with it, hopefully, the details would be useful now.

"I picked him up at his apartment and we walked to Central Park." He began, feeling pretty confident until Allison broke in.

"From his apartment?" She asked in a disbelieving tone, and Derek immediately knew he'd made a mistake so glanced to Stiles for help.

"Well, he's just forgetting that we rode the subway uptown first." He responded. Right, Stiles lived somewhere downtown, Derek had totally forgotten.

"Right." He continued. "But then after we got off the subway, we walked around Central Park. Then we had dinner at this great little restaurant, Girard's."

"Yep, I had the pasta and you had the salmon" Stiles tried to help, but unfortunately just made matters worse again as Scott caught on much more quickly than his younger brother was used to.

"But when I brought up the crawfish, didn't you say you had a seafood allergy?" Damn, Scott was definitely beginning to get suspicious.

"Yeah, I do, uh-huh." 

"Oh my gosh, did I say salmon? I meant steak." Stiles laughed to cover his nervous tone. This was not going well. Derek needed to do something to salvage this story.

"So then we grabbed a couple of oolong teas, and walked around and talked for the rest of the night." He concluded, hoping that little detail would add some authenticity to their hatchet job of a first date retelling.

"Oolong is my favourite." Stiles looked over at him in surprise.

"I know," Derek admitted softly, a small smile gracing his lips, then before he could look too closely at what Stiles thought about the fact that he knew that he decided perhaps he should add one final detail to their story.

"And then, this is my favourite part but he hates it, he told me that he'd read everything I've ever written and that he was a huge fan. It was a little much honestly, but I thought it was cute."

They were all chucking when he finished talking and Stiles had already started talking over him.  
"Ah, I don't remember it quite like that." But no one was listening to him, and it seemed like they had smoothed over most of the bumps in their tale so maybe, it would all be okay.

After that, the conversation returned to the Christmas Market opening and Derek breathed a sigh of relief that he had managed to get through the first line of questioning mostly unscathed.


	3. Getting to Know You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles and Derek spend some more time together and learn some much-needed information so that they can better pull of their Christmas cover-up. A chance encounter while out in the wild brings them unexpectedly closer and things are getting more complicated by the day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter three ready to go. Enjoy :)
> 
> I really liked this part of the movie and I'm excited for these two to get a little more alone time!  
> Please leave a comment if you liked it. I'll be back tomorrow with chapter four.

Stiles wandered upstairs while Derek unpacked his bags in the guest room, and when he got to his room he decided he should give Lydia a call and check-in.

"Lydia, I just don't think this is going to work." He told her as she asked how things were going.

"Oh come on, it can't be that bad already."

"My family just tried to make us kiss!" he exclaimed in disbelief.

"Well, what did you do?"

"We faked it. Obviously." He didn't think they had done a particularly believable job, but for now, their family seemed to buy that they were just a little awkward and a new couple.

"Is that Stiles?" He heard Jordan call from the background and shuffling around as Lydia put him on speakerphone. "What's he up to?"

"Apparently fake kissing my brother." Lydia filled him in with entirely too much glee in her voice.

"Shush!" Stiles tried to keep her quiet, there was no need for anyone else to know how badly this was going.

"You know what, I'm not even gonna ask about that" Jordan's voice got fainter as he moved away from the phone.

"Well apart from that, how is it going?"

"You mean before or after Isaac showed up with his new boyfriend?" Stiles threw out in an offhand manner knowing that Lydia would jump on that information like a hyena on an animal carcass.

"Ugh, he would." Lydia sounded exasperated, but not at all surprised.

"Yeah I know right? He claimed they didn't realise I was gonna be home or something dumb." Stiles was disappointed, he thought they were on good terms, but if Isaac was going out of his way to show off his new boyfriend maybe there was more resentment there than he thought.

Jordan's voice came from the background again, "Babe, the cab is here to take us to the airport, let's go."

"Sorry hun, I gotta go. Love you"

"No problem, I'll talk to you later. Love you too" Stiles hung up his phone just as Scott walked in with a questioning look on his face. 

"Lydia." He explained, and Scott's face cleared, but then he frowned again, clearly, something was on his mind.

"So, you and Derek?" he asked, and now Stiles could see what the issue was. His brother clearly wasn't entirely convinced by their relationship, and possibly had even overheard a little of the telephone conversation he's just had.

Stiles raised his eyebrows in question, not really sure how he was expected to respond to that question, which wasn't really even a question.

"You don't think it's a little surprising? Being that he's Lydia's brother and all?"

"Yeah, I mean I guess so." Stiles trailed off, he honestly did think it would be weird if he started dating Lydia's brother, not that it was the only thing stopping him from being in a real relationship with the handsome writer.

"And bringing Derek here has nothing to do with Isaac bringing his new boyfriend home?"

Damn Scott really knew him too well, he was going to have to work harder to convince him that this thing with Derek was real.

"No, of course not, Isaac can bring anyone he wants. I mean some people might think it's a little soon but I don't care." He put as much emphasis as he could into the lie, he had a lot of ground to make up if his brother was this suspicious so soon.

"It's okay if you're still hurt Stiles, you don't have to keep it to yourself," Scott reassured him.

"That's not what this is about. I brought Derek here because I like Derek."

"Okay, I believe you." 

"Good."

"But just so you know, I'm on your side."

"There are no sides!" Stiles exclaimed this was not going at all how he planned.

"Yeah but I'm your brother, I'm always on your side." God, Scott was going to make him tear up if he wasn't careful.

"Come on Scott." Stiles tried to get him to move on from the conversation.

"Okay," he held his hands up, clearly giving up. "Well, I'd better get the kiddo and head home. I love you."

Stiles nodded, glad that they had finished with their little impromptu heart to heart.

"I love you too."

"I'm glad your home – I miss you, man." Scott leaned in for a hug and gave him a bigger squeeze than normal before heading out to go home. Stiles blew out a breath, this was definitely more complicated than he had anticipated.

~~~ ****~~~

Derek managed to escape outside after dinner while everyone else was occupied, grabbing the opportunity for a breath of fresh air. The Stilinski's had been very kind to him but answering a bunch of questions for which he didn't actually have a prepared answer was still stressful, to say the least.

He had been outside for a few minutes when he felt a presence behind him on the wrap-around porch. Derek was facing out looking around at the picturesque neighbourhood filled with porch swings, lush green lawns and children's bicycles. Stiles joined him leaning against the railing and passed him a beer with a deep sigh, and Derek took it from him with a soft smile.

"Well, that went well" Stiles began sarcastically, but as Derek looked over he found him smiling and with humour lighting his eyes so he obviously wasn't too upset. "My brother just caught me talking to Lydia about our 'arrangement'."

"Yeah, we probably should have prepared more for their questions huh? And we were lucky they didn't push any harder to be honest. Do you think he's onto us?"

"Well, I didn't really expect them to push too hard, but you're right we should probably have talked about it a little before we got here. I don't think he's onto us, but we can't afford any more slip-ups. You have any more allergies I need to know about?"

"Nope, that's all. You?"

"Nah, the only thing I'm allergic too is other people's bullshit."

A laugh burst out of Derek beyond his control, and he looked over at Stiles who was taking a long pull from his beer, his head tipped back exposing the long line of his neck. The laugh died on Derek's lips and suddenly his mouth was dry. He shook his head slightly to clear his thoughts before turning back to his own beer to take a mouthful.

"I should probably know what you do for a living" Derek realised, "Something with websites right?"

"I work for Bravoso Media," Stiles said, "I'm a UX designer." At Derek's blank look he said: "so yeah, websites." It wasn't worth it to try to make him understand right now.

"Websites, let's go with that." Derek agreed.

"What's your favourite thing you've ever written?" Stiles asked, trying to get some more information for the website he needed to get started on.

"Probably the first essay I ever had published. It was just in a small literary magazine, but I was really proud of it."

"What's your favourite restaurant?" Stiles asked, curious to see if he could guess from the information he already had.

"Girard's," Derek said with a sideways glance, obviously realising that Stiles had guessed this would be his answer. 

"Girard's from the fake date?" Stiles confirmed his suspicion and Derek nodded.

"So, how did you know oolong tea was my favourite?" Stiles asked suddenly and Derek had to swallow quickly before he choked. Shit, this was going to make him seem weird but he didn't think that he could come up with a believable excuse that wouldn't be worse than the truth.

"Cause you said so." He tried to keep it succinct, but one look at Stiles disbelieving amber eyes and he knew he wasn't going to get away without further explanation. "At Lydia's rehearsal dinner, everyone was getting coffee after dinner and you asked the waiter what teas they had and got really excited because they had your favourite, oolong."

"It's a little weird that you remember that," Stiles replied with a sly little smirk on his face because of course, he would pick up on that. 

"It's not weird." Derek refuted immediately, trying to sound like he believed it himself.

"Maybe we will survive this Christmas after all" Stiles said, mischievous smirk still gracing his features. Derek stared at him for a moment, wondering if he was right or if they were biting off more than they could chew pretending to be boyfriends, especially since he couldn't convince himself that he only wanted to pretend. 

~~~ ****~~~

A while later, after leaving Derek downstairs in the spare room, Stiles was in his old bedroom unpacking his suitcase when Melissa came up to see him.

"Mom" Stiles greeted her with a warm smile "everything okay?"

"Oh yeah, yeah. Just wanted to make sure you were settling in okay."

She paused for a moment and Stiles went back to unpacking, waiting to see what she really came to talk to him about. He was terrible at silences, but he managed to out wait for her which was proof that she had something on her mind.

"I was talking to your boyfriend downstairs." She finally said, and Stiles looked up sharply.

"My boyfriend?" he questioned.

"Derek" she supplied, and then Stiles felt like a total idiot. He was doing a terrible job of maintaining this charade.

"Oh yeah, right."

"He seems nice," she said taking out one of his smarter shirts and beginning to hold it up as though she was examining it.

"He is... nice" Stiles tried, wondering where exactly she was going with this. Another long pause passed between them and he very nearly broke this time, but then suddenly Melissa was throwing the shirt back down into his suitcase and abruptly turning to face him.

"Okay, I just don't understand why you didn't tell me about him?" She said, looking confused and a little hurt. Stiles felt terrible, he hadn't meant to make her upset with his inability to be alone at Christmas around his ex, it felt very selfish, but he couldn't tell her now that would just make everything worse.

"Well, I don't know, you guy's really like Isaac and I didn't want to put you all in the middle," he said. This was something he had actually thought about. Not with regards to Derek, but in general he had been worried that whenever he did meet someone new he would have trouble introducing them to the family given their connection to his ex.

"Oh honey, of course, we like Isaac, but we love you and we just want you to be happy. And it seems like Derek makes you happy, right?"

Stiles felt better for a moment, glad to hear that his family would be so accepting of him bringing home a new partner, but then even more guilty at needing to lie to them for the next few days.

"Ecstatically," Stiles responded with a smile that he hoped was believable. If he was going to lie to his family, he damn well better do it well enough that they didn't worry about him bringing someone home who wasn't worth his time just because he wasn't with Isaac any more.

"Well alright then, that's all that matters," Melissa said with a warm smile, she turned to walk out of the bedroom. "Oh and don't stay up too late, please." Stiles rolled his eyes at her parting words but he was relieved their conversation had gone better than he could have hoped.

~~~ ****~~~

Meanwhile, downstairs in the guest room, Derek was staring at his laptop screen and the blank document ready to start writing his Parker Holliwell romance. Absolutely nothing was coming to him. He normally wrote pieces with more substance, things he could research and give details. Romance was not an area he knew much about, his last girlfriend had been a total psychopath but even she had mentioned that he wasn't particularly good at the romantic gestures.

Procrastinating he looked around the guest room for something to distract him for a moment and landed on a shelf full of trophies and achievements of both Scott and Stiles. Nothing jumped out at him to begin with, a few lacrosse awards, and attendance certificates. Then his eyes reached the end of the shelf and found a science award, apparently, Stiles had built a computer entirely out of recycled parts. Every time he learned something new about that man, it was even more intriguing and interesting.

Derek turned back to his laptop, trying to refocus on his current problem, but he was still stumped and before long he had slumped down and fallen asleep hunched over his keyboard.

~~~ ****~~~

Stiles woke late the next morning, after staying up finishing off his dad's Christmas present the night before. Heading downstairs he could smell pancakes cooking and began to salivate in anticipation, he was starving. Once reaching the kitchen he grabbed a pancake from a plate while Melissa scolded him.

"Aren't you going to wake Derek?" Stiles didn't answer as he had his mouth full, but he rolled his eyes which he felt conveyed his reluctance.

"Let him sleep." John chimed in, and Stiles wondered if perhaps his father wasn't quite as happy about him moving on as Melissa. He would check in with him later but he suspected it would just take some time for his Dad to warm up to the new man in his life.

"He won't want to miss breakfast, go wake him up." She insisted and shoved Stiles out the door towards the guest bedroom.

He knocked on the door and when he didn't hear any movement he carefully opened it, to find Derek asleep at the desk laptop open in front of him.

"Derek?" he called out as loudly as he dared, trying to wake the man without causing him to jump out of his skin. It didn't work, Derek jerked awake and looked around quickly seeming a little disoriented before his eyes landed on Stiles and his gaze cleared.

"Did you sleep there all night?" Stiles questioned.

"Yeah, I guess I did," Derek responded, getting up and heading over to the drawers by the bed.

"Well, we're having breakfast if you wanted to come and get some." Stiles started and then had to turn sharply away from the room and avert his eyes as Derek pulled his t-shirt over his head and his muscled torso came into view.

"Um.. you do eat pancakes don't you?" he tried valiantly to continue while glancing back and forth between Derek, who seemed to have an amused smirk on his face, and the door frame. Perhaps he wasn't hiding his attraction as well as he hoped, but it didn't seem like Derek was going to call him on it so that was something at least.

"Oooh, are they gluten-free?" Derek answered with a grimace and that was enough to get Stiles to turn back to him fully. Thankfully he was now wearing a shirt again, just a sliver of skin peeking out from the top half as he buttoned up the casual blue collared shirt from the bottom, not that Stiles had noticed that.

"What? No!" He answered in disbelief. "They're just regular pancakes, why didn't you say anything last night? Are you really gluten-free?" 

Derek's face relaxed into an amused smile. "No, I love pancakes." He chuckled, Stiles rolled his eyes, glad that his house guest found this so amusing. Derek brushed passed him on the way out to the kitchen and Stiles had to suck in a breath to keep from reacting to the proximity as Derek chuckled and said: "You know, you're kind of grumpy in the morning". 

He stood for a moment in the doorway getting his bearings and cursed himself once again for getting into this situation which seemed to get more complicated with every waking second.

~~~ ****~~~

"There you go Derek," John said handing over a generous stack of pancakes. Derek smiled and thanked him before heading over to the table to pour syrup onto his plate and digging in.

"You want some more Mischief?" His dad asked as Stiles entered behind his new 'boyfriend', at which point Stiles rolled his eyes and replied with no small amount of sarcasm.

"Of course, do you even have to ask?"

"That's my boy!" 

Melissa walked by behind John putting a hand on his back as she passed and asking what time he wanted to leave for the Christmas market. 

"I'm thinking we'll leave in about ten minutes." He replied, finishing up the next batch of pancakes at the range as Melissa took a seat at one end of the long oak table across the kitchen with Derek and Stiles each to one side of her. "We're gonna meet Isaac and Rocky there." He added over his shoulder.

"You kids wanna tag along?" She asked the two men sitting at the table with her but looking at Stiles assuming that he would want to make the decision. Clearly, Melissa was aware that Stiles might still be feeling awkward about seeing his ex and old family friend.

"Tag along? With Isaac and Mr Rocky?" Stiles replied incredulously. "Yeah, I don't think so, thanks though Mom."

"No problem," she said kindly, "I do need a favour actually if you both wouldn't mind?"

Stiles sighed gently, he should have known he was walking into a trap there, but whatever Mom needed couldn't possibly be worse than spending the afternoon being awkward with Isaac and his father.

"Sure Mom, what is it?" 

"Well, I just have a package at the post office I'm expecting. Would you mind picking it up for me?"

"No problem" he was relaxed his shoulders a little as he continued digging into his pancakes.

"Then you can show Derek the town a little bit, give him the tour." She finished enthusiastically and Stiles' eyes jumped up from his plate to lock on Derek's across from him. Their gazes locked for a seemingly endless moment and Stiles felt a shiver run down his spine. Derek regained his composure first and huffed a soft chuckle before speaking, which Stiles immediately felt that he would give anything to hear again.

"Sounds like a plan, can't wait, Mischief." He said, a smirk on his face clearly implying that he would be probing for more information about that particular nickname later on. Stiles would just have to do his best to distract him from that particular conversation.

"Eat your pancakes," Stiles said putting as swift an end to the conversation as he could.

~~~ ****~~~

"Over there is the best Po Boy shop in town, and right in here is my favourite cafe. I don't know how you feel about salted caramel hot chocolates, but they make an amazing one right..." Stiles trailed off his sentence as they rounded the corner past 'The Local Bean'. Derek had surprisingly actually been paying attention as he rambled on about the local sites and the city he was raised in, but as they passed the outdoor seating area covered in Christmas decorations and wreaths, he spotted Isaac at a table with his new boyfriend. Their heads were bent together and they didn't seem to have noticed Stiles and Derek yet, but they were about to walk right by in front of the table so it was inevitable.

"I'm gonna need you to put your arm around me," Stiles said suddenly, grabbing Derek's wrist and pulling it around his shoulders. 

Derek glanced over their shoulders and noticed the couple to their left. He caught on and without putting too much thought into it he leaned closer to Stiles and tried to kiss his cheek, somewhat more awkwardly than he had planned, especially as Stiles immediately flailed away.

"What the hell are you doing?" he asked sharply, and Derek quickly felt chagrined.

"I was...improvising?" He said warily, aware that he might have crossed a line here.

"Well warn a guy!" Stiles replied emphatically, but he didn't seem mad, just surprised, so Derek blew out a breath of relief that he hadn't offended this man he was quickly coming to care about.

After a moment he thought he should try to change the subject, so he tipped his head back to indicate the two men sitting at the outdoor tables and said: "I'm guessing that was what you were trying to avoid?"

Stiles nodded, letting out a little sigh of disappointment at the fact that it still bothered him to see Isaac and his boyfriend. "He's hot right? " He had to ask, but he regretted it almost immediately. Stiles had no inclination to hear what Derek thought of Jackson's chiselled jaw and flawless hair. He was basically the exact opposite of Stiles, which was probably exactly Derek's type, just like it had clearly been Isaac's.

"Yeah, but has he ever built a computer from scratch out of only recycled materials?" Derek replied, a little glint in his eye before Stiles could whip himself up into a ramble about not needing to hear how good Jackson looked in his tight white t-shirt. That brought him up short. Derek had been paying attention, again, and Stiles felt his pulse accelerate a little as they locked eyes for a moment. Derek still had his arm around his shoulders, and it sat more comfortably that Stiles would have expected since their heights were very similar. 

Just then a buzzing sound came from Stiles' pocket, interrupting their moment and giving him time to catch his breath as he wedged his hand into the pocket of his jeans and pulled it out to check.

"Oh no. The driver's running late, it's gonna be another hour before they drop off the package." He was disappointed, they had already looked around the town and he didn't want Derek to get too bored. 

"I guess we could just head to the market, come back later?" Derek suggested with a rise of one truly impressive eyebrow.

Stiles looked at him for a moment, considering, and then an idea came to him suddenly.

"No, you know what, follow me." He grabbed Derek's hand as casually as he could and pulled him off without stopping to answer any more questions. 

A few minutes later they were walking along beside the river and chatting about what it was like for Stiles to grow up here.

"Well I'm sure it was beautiful growing up here, but I definitely miss the snow back home in Oregan." To Derek Christmas just wasn't Christmas without a little snow.

"Ah yes, but does your home town have a Christmas smell?" Stiles asked slyly, clearly excited to explain where his question was going.

"A Christmas smell?" Derek frowned a little in confusion.

"Yeah, every year in December the farmers burn the sugar cane after the harvest, so these little flecks of ash fall down from the sky and it smells like a really sweet campfire. So you smell it and you know that Christmas is right around the corner."

"And ash literally falls from the sky?" 

"Yeah, it's like Pompeii!" Stiles announces with glee. 

Derek opens his mouth to ask more questions, but then the bush right in front of them starts rustling and he jumps back in surprise.

"Could that be a crocodile?" he asks nervously.

"Well, we're not in Florida, so no," Stiles responds, amused. Derek relaxes a little and steps forward to see what's causing the rustling just as Stiles throws in that it "could be an alligator though!"

"Are you serious?" Derek jerks his head up to see if Stiles is just messing with him and finds him looking pretty serious. A moment later he bursts out laughing and his laughter only gets more out of control when the creature causing the disturbance crawls out from under the bush and is a very small and unthreatening looking turtle.

Derek bumps his shoulder into Stiles' plaid covered one playfully as they walk away over the bridge.

"You realise when I tell this story I'm going to tell people that I rescued you from a crocodile?" He asks as they walk away. 

"It's an alligator!" Stiles reminds him with a laugh that Derek can't help but join him in. Stiles is so full of life, it's infectious. He makes Derek want to go out and do things, not just read them in a book, and he hasn't felt that way in a very long time.

~~~ ****~~~  
After they have collected the package for Melissa, Stiles asks if they can drop by the house so he can collect his laptop so they head in that direction as they talk more about the town and the Christmas market.

Derek holds open the door for Stiles, rolling his eyes to himself at why he feels the need to be so gentlemanly all of a sudden, and just as they get inside his mobile phone starts to ring. Noticing that it is his agent he tells Stiles that he needs to take it and nods for him to go ahead and swipes his phone to answer.

"Hi, Kelly." He greets her a little wearily, guilt playing on his mind that he hasn't made any progress on his latest ghost-writing assignment yet. He leans against the garland decorated staircase and tightly shuts his eyes as she asks him how it is going.

"Well. I haven't exactly written anything yet," he admits and braces himself for her disapproval. "I just haven't been feeling inspired." He throws out at her, romance really is not his forte.

"Well why don't you do some of the things on the list, maybe that will help?" she suggests, and Derek scoffs. "Come on, read me something from the list."  
"Okay, uh flee from danger, dance under the stars..." Derek reads having pulled the list from his back pocket.  
"There!" she interrupts him, "Find a date, take them dancing, easy!"  
"I can't just find a date, I'm in Louisiana with my sisters best friend."  
"You're in Louisiana? With someone? You can literally live out the plot of this book Derek! Write what you know, isn't that what they always say?"   
He sighs at her enthusiasm and stares down at the list of plot devices in his hand. Then one of them catches his eye.  
' Flee from danger'

He chuckles to himself and promises Kelly that he will do his best while grabbing a pen from next to the phone inside the front door and scrawling 'alligator' on the paper. Maybe this book can still have some personality after all.

~~~ ****~~~  
Running upstairs to get his laptop so that he can surprise his Dad later, Stiles finds himself having to stop as he gets to his room to take a few deep breaths and remind himself that Derek is here to play pretend. 

It should not be this difficult to remember, but earlier as they walked by the river together Stiles had felt happier than he had in months and he found himself wishing that he had been able to bring Derek here under better circumstances.

He decides to take a moment to himself and get his head back on straight, this is a transaction that's all and he needs to remember that or he is going to get hurt. 

The fact that he has always found Lydia's big brother kind of intriguing (and extremely hot) is not a factor here. He needs to keep it together just until Christmas is over, and the fact that he is already struggling so soon is not a good sign.

Sitting on the edge of the four-poster bed that dominates the room that his Dad and Mel redecorated when he moved out, he takes in a few deep breaths. It's a little floral for his tastes, but he has to admit that it is soothing. Plus is a hell of a lot more stylish than the dark walls and posters of his college years.

His phone begins vibrating in his pocket, and he almost doesn't check it because he's pretty sure he knows who it's going to be. Stiles has never been very good at lying to Lydia and he is feeling just off-balance enough to say something stupid. 

Reluctantly he answers though, knowing she will only keep calling if he doesn't and leans back against the pillows; crossing his legs and preparing for her inquisition.

"Hey, Lyd's, how's it going?"

"Good, how are things there? Any better?" She asks him, clearly concerned. And for good reason - this was all her idea so if it blows up in his face he is totally going to blame Lydia.

"Yeah, so far so good."

"How's my flaky big brother?" He knew she was going to throw that comment back in his face, but to be fair at the time he thought it was true. Now though, he isn't so sure.

"Good actually. He's been great, turns out the buffer is working so. He's a pretty good distraction." He tries to stop himself before he starts rambling about just how distracting he finds her big brother and his charming smile.

"Good distraction huh?" she says with a hint of suspicion, so he probably should have stopped talking a lot sooner than he did.

Stiles manages to distract her from any further questioning by telling her a bit about the surprise for his dad and then saying that he has to run as Derek will be waiting for him. He's not entirely sure he threw suspicion off of himself, but at least he has managed to avoid utter humiliation at the hands of his best friend for a little while longer. 

He pushes himself off the bed and grabs his laptop from the desk before running downstairs and finding Derek just hanging up from his own phone call. If he noticed that Stiles was gone for longer than it should have taken to collect a laptop he doesn't say anything, just asks if they are ready to go now and scoops the package for Melissa up on the way out of the door with a smoothness that Stiles couldn't achieve if he practised that move for an hour.

They headed off, Stiles with a fluttering in his stomach about bringing Derek to the Market. Stiles was excited and nervous to show it all to Derek. It was so important to him and, even though they weren’t really together, he hoped that Derek was as enchanted by what they had built over the last thirty years as Stiles was. He decided not to look too closely at the reason why he felt that way, he had enough to worry about.


	4. The Christmas Market

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Derek finally gets to see the famous Christmas Market. Afterwards Stiles and Derek spend some time learning each others histories and some surprising admissions are made.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm putting up chapter four earlier today because I'm out for my work Christmas meal this evening and so I wanted to make sure it was done before I left.  
> This one felt shorter when I was reading it through but the word count isn't much different that the last chapter. I think it might just be that I love the second half of the chapter so much it feels like it goes by quickly. This chapter contains the reason that I felt like I needed to write this out, a scene which in the movie was just a visual with no audio and I wanted to write what I thought they were saying when they played cards together.  
> I hope you all like it, I will be back tomorrow with chapter five. Thank you so much to everyone who is reading and for those who have already left kudos. If anyone wants to drop me a comment I would be thrilled!!

The Christmas Market was more elaborate than anything that Derek could have pictured, had he bothered to imagine what it might look like. To be honest he was more preoccupied with making sure that Stiles was happy and his family didn't figure out what was really going on between them (although with each passing day he was wondering if even he knew exactly what that was).

They arrived in the late afternoon to drop off the package and strolled around the edge of the river which ran right through the middle of the market space as the sun began to dip below the structures around the edges of the area the market was set up in. It gave the whole space a sort of honey glow, and Derek couldn't help being reminded of the similar glow that he was drawn to in Stiles' eyes.

Friends and family seemed to be all around hanging up garlands and stringing lights, even some of them putting out large inflatable decorations, lollipops and candy canes. It was insane, but it worked. The whole place looked like every Christmas story that Derek's parents had read him as a child and it was magical.

About halfway around they came upon 'Ornate Noel' and spotted Melissa and another lady setting up their Christmas decorations to be sold. 

"Hi" Stiles called out as they approached, "Hi Miss Meredith". Ah so this was Isaac's mother, Stiles had filled Derek in on the family names this morning on their tour of the town so he was well aware of the connection, but what he wasn't sure about was the reaction he was likely to get as Stiles' "new boyfriend".

"Stiles!" Miss Meredith squealed excitedly and pulled him in for a tight hug as Derek greeted Melissa and handed over the package they had collected for her when he heard his name mentioned.

"And is this the handsome writer we've been gossiping about all day?" Meredith was asking, and smiling over at him while Stiles' introduced him.

"Yep, this is Derek, my boyfriend. My boyfriend Derek." He sounded a little more convincing than he had yesterday, but still unsure in the words. Hopefully, it just sounded like he wasn't used to saying it yet.

Derek dragged his eyes away from Stiles and held his hand out to greet the tall lady in front of them with wild curly blonde hair, Derek could definitely see the resemblance between her and the cherub-faced man who he had met yesterday.

"Oh around these parts we hug, boyfriend Derek," she told him and grabbed him for a hug that felt every bit as tight as the one she had given Stiles. At least it didn't seem like she was going to hold this against him, so any discomfort he had been anxious about was obviously not going to be a factor.

"Nice to meet you too," he responded once she had let go and he had caught his breath.

Once the introductions had been made they looked at the stall and all of the decorations that were being set up as the sunset behind them. 

~~~ ****~~~

A little later they sat undercover in the centre of the market on top of a bench chatting idly about the lights and the decorations around them. They were laughing at Stiles' comparison of the Santa statue with the flight attendant they had seen on the flight in when Derek was distracted by a less than pleasant conversation happening over to their left.

"Just this?" Jackson asked Isaac sounding like he was underwhelmed.

"Yeah. I mean, yeah." Isaac said hesitantly, likely wondering what exactly his muscled boy-toy could be having such a low opinion of. "It's really nice isn't it?" he asked, quite bravely Derek thought given the obvious tension between them.

"Yeah it's pretty" Jackson replied without much enthusiasm. "I mean it sort of looks like Christmas just threw up all over this quaint little market, but you know it's..." He trailed off and Isaac jumped in but rather than defending his father's passion project as Derek expected he seemed to be trying to placate the pretty boy.

"Yeah, I mean I know it's a lot, but this is the fun part you know? And it's not even about this, this is just..." he was waffling now, trying to justify the market to this snobby man.

"Definitely," he interrupted. "I mean subtlety is overrated and taste is really subjective so."

"I mean yeah, yeah I guess." Isaac trailed off and then led him away to look out at the water. 

Derek let out a breath and hoped that none of the rest of Stiles' or Isaac's families had overheard that conversation. He turned back to Stiles who looked sad and realised that if he had heard all of the that obviously, Stiles had too.

"Don't listen to him" he tried to reassure this beautiful man sitting beside him. "This place looks incredible. Your family has done a wonderful job."

"Thank you" Stiles replied looking up at Derek from under his eyelashes with a shy smile on his face and knocking all of the breath out of his lungs.

"Stiles?" Mr Rocky called out just then, thankfully interrupting the moment before Derek could do something really stupid, like telling Stiles just how gorgeous his eyes were in the glow of the Christmas lights.

They walked together over the tables nearby where John and Melissa were sitting as Mr Rocky told Stiles that it was time. Derek was curious about what was happening, but he had a feeling that it was going to be something amazing that Stiles had done from the please little smile on his face.

"Dad? I know it's not Christmas yet, but I have a surprise for you so I have to give you your present early." Stiles waved Scott and his wife over towards the table as he sets his laptop down on the table in front of John.

"What?" John says in surprise, looking around at the faces of his family for a hint.

"Well Dad, I worked with Mr Rocky and the council to create for you, not only a brand-new state-of-the-art website for the Christmas Market but an interactive app for all the locals and tourists alike."

Stiles scrolled down the screen on his phone as his dad looked between it and the website on the laptop. There were beautiful images of the market and the lights and displays and it all looked amazing to Derek.

"Wow son, this is..." John didn't seem to be able to finish his sentence, he was so overwhelmed.

Stiles ploughed on giving his father a rundown of the features on the app. "See if you scroll down here, you can find your favourite vendors and you can see and pay for merchandise and products. And then you can find out what time your favourite bands are playing."

John stared at the screen for a moment, then looked over to Mr Rocky narrowing his eyes "and you were in on this?" he asked suspiciously.

"I'd never ruin a Christmas surprise old friend" Isaac's dad replied with a wry grin that crinkled the sides of his mouth in a pleasant way that spoke of a man who had spent much of his life smiling rather than frowning.

"Here, show him the brochure" he prompted Stiles handing over a thin slip of paper with a glossy photograph of the main entrance to the Christmas Market all lit up at night. It looked incredible and if Derek hadn't already been able to tell from the way he spoke about this place it was clear from all the effort Stiles had put into this gift just how much it meant to him and his family.

"Ok, so Mr Rocky and I have been publicizing the website and the app, and we already have twice as many downloads as predicted. So it looks like this is going to be the biggest year yet!" Stiles was glowing with pride at the thought of how bustling this place would be with locals and visitors in a day or two. The excitement at his dad's success was written all over his face as he grinned down at the older man and waited to see what he thought of the work he had done.

"Mischief, this is just..." John looked up at his son with a blinding smile and a fond look, "This is incredible." He said finally before standing up and wrapping the younger Stilinski in a bear hug of gratitude.

Derek watched the exchange with a pang, he missed his family. Not just Lydia and her parents, though they had been incredible to him, his own parents who had died so many years before. 

"Merry Christmas Dad" Stiles said as he clung on to his father " and congrats on thirty years of the Market!"

The more time he spent with Stiles and his family, the more difficult it became for Derek to decide if it was a good idea for him to have come here or not. On the one hand, it was nice to be around such a close-knit family instead of being alone for Christmas and he was having a lot of fun. On the other, he found that the more he got to know Stiles the more he liked him and the less this whole thing felt fake. He had always been attracted to Stiles and had sensed from his relationship with Lydia that he would be even more impressed if they could get past their differences and get to know each other. But now that they were actually doing that Derek was feeling himself fall for the Bambi-eyed man with a generous spirit, and he wasn't sure how wise a decision it would be to continue down that path.

To avoid falling asleep face down on top of his laptop for yet another night, when they got back from the Market Derek carried it into the living room and settled down beside the glow of the Christmas tree filled with beautiful ornaments. Some of them were glass and fine china, presumably made by Melissa, and others were clearly more sentimental made with popsicle sticks and hand-painted by children. Both were equally beautiful and Derek had to pull himself away from the crowded tree to refocus on his writing. 

A while later he heard footsteps on the staircase and looked up to see Stiles, pyjama-clad and holding a small bundle of presents wrapped in bright red reindeer paper.

"Hey, sorry to interrupt," Stiles said softly as he crouched down beside the tree to place his bundle beneath it. "Just trying to get ahead of things."

"No problem" Derek replied, trying to keep his tone soft to match the man across from him. He didn't know exactly what time it was, he hadn't been paying attention, but he presumed that it was late if Stiles was surprised to see him up.

Derek gazed at the tree again, the lights catching his eyes as they lit Stiles' head from behind where he was bent down pushing his gifts further under.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Stiles asked him as he straightened up and saw where Derek's eyes had drifted.

"This one you?" He asked pointing out a picture hanging from the tree on glittery wool of what appeared to be a very young Stiles with a few missing teeth, grinning at the camera.

"Yeah. Yeah, that's me. And this one is Scott" he replied pointing to an identical ornament with a goofy looking, scruffy haired child on it and chuckling.

"Hey, what's the story with this one?" Derek asked, carefully taking one of the decorations between two fingers and pointing it towards Stiles. It was a triangle shape made of hand-painted pink popsicle sticks with a picture of Melissa in the middle, however, in the picture, she looked paler and had on what appeared to be a hospital cap and gown.

"Oh, my Mom...Melissa, she had breast cancer a couple years back" he explained gently. Clearly, it was a sensitive subject and Derek immediately regretted asking. He should have realised that given the attire she was wearing the story behind that ornament would hardly be a happy one. 

"I'm sorry, I didn't know" he hastily said, kicking himself for shoving his proverbial foot directly into his mouth and bringing up such a painful memory as this time of year.

"It's fine, it's fine. She's a strong lady" Stiles replied, still looking sad but also proud of his mom for beating such a terrible disease.

"Is she okay now?" Derek asked hesitantly, she seemed fine but if she wasn't he definitely didn't want to push the subject any further.

"She's in remission, um, but she's supposed to get check-ups which can be stressful," Stiles said slowly reflecting on how difficult that time had been.

"Yeah. Sounds like a lot."

"It is." 

Silence hung between them for a moment as Derek wondered if he should change the subject. Then Stiles started talking again.

"Anyway, I moved back home when she got sick and I don't know if you remember, but that's back when I was living with Lydia, and I just left and I came here because I felt like it's where I needed to be. And then Isaac was actually my high school boyfriend, and he was really wonderful with my family during the whole situation, and so we got back together." It all spilled out of his mouth, not quickly as though rushing to get through it but steadily as though cathartic to finally be getting it off his chest.

"There's a lot of history there," Derek responded, feeling a little sinking in his chest that he didn't want to think too carefully about.

"Yes. You could say that."

Another quiet moment as they stared at each other before Stiles took a deep breath and shook himself from the heavy mood that always fell over him when he thought about Melissa being sick, or his mother before she died.

"Hey, you don't want any hot chocolate, do you?" Chocolate always made things better, and he could really use a pick-me-up right now.

"Yeah, sounds nice."

They moved into the kitchen and Stiles stood at the stove pouring milk and cocoa into a saucepan to heat up while Derek took a seat at the counter in the centre of the room and watched as he stirred.

"Do you mind if I ask why you two broke up?" He heard himself asking, he hadn't meant to. He was curious, but he knew it was a personal question that he shouldn't ask, so he had no idea how it had fallen out of his mouth.

"Wow!" Stiles was understandably surprised, but he answered "Uh, well, Isaac thought we wanted different things. And I thought he was wrong. You know, I thought it was one of those things that you say when you break up, "Oh no, it's not you, it's me." But now that a little bit of time has passed, I think he was probably right. You know, it's possible to really care about somebody and not be compatible."

"You still love him?"

"I don't know. I hope not."

"That's an honest answer." Derek raised his eyebrows in surprise at the response, and it wasn't as reassuring as he had wanted it to be but at least it was a start.

"Yeah. Pretty invasive question." Stiles glanced over his shoulder with a chuckle at Derek's audacity. But he found he didn't mind answering the questions, he didn't feel like Derek was judging him for his answers and it seemed as though he was genuinely interested.

"It's not lost on me that you are a really good listener." He commented, feeling like he needed this stunning man to know that he appreciated his company.

"Oh, thanks. It turns out that, um, you are pretty interesting to listen to." Stiles felt a warm glow at Derek's response and he turned back to pour out the hot chocolate into mugs to hide the pink hue he was sure his cheeks were turning.

"What's your story?" Stiles asked, handing Derek his mug and popping a marshmallow in the top, attempting to steer the conversation to safer waters.

"How much hot chocolate you got?" Derek chuckled as he sipped the cocoa.

"Tons! Really, what's your deal, Mr Romance? You have like lots of 'damsels in distress’ that you've saved?" Stiles asked sarcastically, but he glanced down at his hot chocolate avoiding eye contact as he found himself far more invested in the answer than he would ever admit.

"Uh, no. Actually, there's not a whole lot to write home about."

"I'm not buying it."

"No?"

"Mm-mmm."

"Wanna play some cards?" Derek attempted a distraction but could see from the glint in Stiles' eye that it was unlikely to be successful.

"Nice segue."

"Mm-hmm."

"Yeah, I'll play you in cards. Rummy. When I win, you'll tell me stories."

"OK. And when I win..."

"You won't," Stiles responded, cocky as ever and Derek couldn't help but find it unbearably attractive.

They played cards for a couple of hours after that, chatting away and Derek found himself opening up. He told Stiles all about his last couple of girlfriends, even the crazy one who he had to get a restraining order against. 

"I swear, I opened the door to my apartment and she was standing there completely naked but holding a massive knife! I've never run out of anywhere so fast." Derek laughed about it now with Stiles, but at the time it had been totally terrifying.

"Wow, okay so that's your idea of nothing to write home about?" Stiles chuckled and thought about how to phrase his next question carefully.

"I couldn't help but notice that you've only really mentioned women..." He started, trailing off a little as he lost confidence in asking a question he wasn't sure he wanted the answer to. Stiles was pretty certain that Lydia had mentioned Derek being bisexual, but he didn't know if it was true. Not to mention that if all of his previous relationships were with women then perhaps regardless of whether he found men attractive he wasn't interested in having a relationship with them. 

"So? You're wondering if it's a stretch for me pretending to be in a relationship with a man?" Derek replied with a smirk, leaning back and stretching his arms over his head which gave Stiles just a small glimpse of the trail of hair peeking out between the bottom of his t-shirt where it rose up and his sweatpants. Which coincidentally was just enough to cause Stiles to begin blushing and stuttering.

"Well, ye..yeah, I mean just wondering how um, how uncomfortable all this might be making you?" He finished somewhat lamely and sure that Derek could see his pathetic digging for what it really was - an attempt to scope out if this tall, gorgeous man could possibly be interested in someone like Stiles.

Derek grinned at the flustered man across from him and decided to put him out of his misery.

"My last couple of relationships have been with women, but I'm pretty equal opportunities, to be honest. I mean I haven't been serious with a guy in a few years, but that's more chance than anything else." He took a breath and decided to just say what he was thinking, unusual for him but Stiles was easy to talk to.

"After Kate, I haven't really wanted to date anyone seriously the last couple of years - that was pretty scary honestly. But when I think about the future, finding someone long-term" he paused again waiting for Stiles to meet his eyes "I definitely picture myself with a guy, just feels more like the right choice for me." 

The air felt thicker as they locked eyes over the little card table on the back porch that a moment ago had seemed ordinary and now felt like a great chasm between them. Stiles took a deep pull of breath in and held it for a moment, unable to look away but as he exhaled Derek looked down at his cards and the tension faded.

"Well, after your last ex I can understand why you would be put off of women, at least for a while." He tried to joke, but it felt a little forced as did the amused huff Derek gave. 

Stiles played his next card and won the hand and just like that they moved onto a story about Derek getting a crayon stuck up his nose as a child and the moment was gone. Though when they turned in for bed thirty minutes later as their yawns got too close together to carry on a conversation, they both found themselves thinking about it as they lay in bed and wondering if it had meant anything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know Jackson comes off as kind of a jerk and you might think I did that on purpose, but honestly this is literally how the character is in the movie - hence why I felt it fit his character so well.
> 
> Also who can guess which ex-girlfriend of Derek's I was picturing when I wrote about his crazy knife-wielding incident?


	5. Unexpected Conversations in a Maze

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles takes Derek on a tour of the Christmas Market now that it's open, reveals some surprising talents and ends up having an awkward conversation in a Christmas Tree Maze.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Love this chapter, I hope that you are enjoying it. Thanks for sticking with me those that are still reading, and for the kudos - but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for that first comment!!

The next day dawned bright and early so Stiles and Derek dragged themselves from their beds despite being up far too late the previous night because it was the first day of the Christmas Market and everyone was eager to get going. Even Derek who didn't really know what to expect could feel the buzz of joy and excitement in the family room as they rushed past each other grabbing coats and bags and trays to bring with them and piled into the two jeeps parked outside of the steep front lawn in what could only be considered happy chaos.

Once they arrived and unloaded everything they were put straight to work setting up booths and got separated for a while as Stiles was greeting folks arriving and Derek was putting his height to good use hanging decorations that had been missed. Melissa stood by showing him where to put things and after a good-natured battle, she managed to convince him to wear a red volunteer shirt with the information about the market on it. The only one she had been able to find was at least one size too small, but once it was on there was no way he was taking it off again.

By the time mid-morning rolled around Stiles had a moment to go and look for Derek and see where he had ended up. While they were apart he had changed into his usual outfit for the Market, which explained why when he did find his erstwhile 'boyfriend' he stared at Stiles with a look of total surprise. It took a minute for Stiles to realise that he hadn't been wearing the striped red and white leggings, green tunic or elf hat when he had left him earlier. 

"Okay, laugh it up!" he said hoping Derek wouldn't be too hard on him, and alternately noticing that the volunteer t-shirt he was wearing was far tighter than was decent. Damn, the man looked like he was about to bust out of it like the Hulk and Stiles would have no problem with that at all.

Derek cleared his throat and turned away with a chuckle and light red flush on his cheeks as the combination of Stiles in his adorable elf outfit and the appreciative stare he was giving Derek was a little too much for him to handle.

They avoided the topic altogether and went to see how else they could help, but Melissa and John shooed them off telling Stiles that he needed to show his 'handsome writer' around the place. They both rolled their eyes but set off together anyway around the outside of the path to get a good look at everything.

They didn't hold hands, but they walked so closely together that their arms brushed as they walked and with every step, Derek wondered what Stiles would do if he just reached out and took his hand. Probably he would go along with it, but then they were in public where his family could see them so he would have to. Derek didn’t want Stiles to hold his hand because he had to keep up appearances, he wanted him to do it because it was something that made him feel good. If he tried right now he wouldn’t be able to tell if Stiles was happy about it or not, and there was always the risk he would think it was a step too far even for the charade. He couldn't quite bring himself to take the chance, but he enjoyed each moment that their skin touched accidentally as they walked.

They walked quietly for a while as they took in all the decorations and booths and watched together as Stiles' niece Paige saw Santa and asked him for a new doll for Christmas (though Derek was pretty sure she could see it was Mr Lahey in the suit given that he wasn't even wearing a fake beard). 

They shared a smile at the sweet moment and Derek could still feel a frision of tension between them, like a promise unfulfilled, that had been there last night. It wasn’t constant, but it seemed like anytime they locked eyes for more than a few seconds the air was just a little thicker and Derek felt his breath come a little faster and heavier than it ought to.

Then inevitably, one of them would pull their eyes away due to a distraction (real or imagined), and the moment would pass. The tension fizzling out of them like a burst bubble and they would be left chuckling for lack of a better way to deal with what had just passed subtly between them. Derek wasn’t sure what was happening, or where it was headed, but he was enjoying the feeling of building towards something exciting with Stiles and he didn’t feel in any rush to get to a conclusion just yet.

Once they passed the halfway point Stiles started pointing out all of the stalls that had only been empty yesterday with just the outside decorations set up. There were so many stalls for vendors and food, and activities that Derek had a hard time taking it all in. It was beautiful, and full of life and Christmas spirit, but a little overwhelming and he was glad that Stiles had so far been showing him around but not insisting they go and join the festivities.   
It seemed like Stiles had a good sense of when Derek was able to be social and when he found it all a little too much and needed some distance, so far this trip he had been very good at interpreting and allowing Derek space when necessary. It was something that he had struggled with before, partners or even friends who would push too hard when he needed peace and leave him alone to wallow when he needed to be pushed. Derek felt like Stiles really understood how Derek was feeling, like he didn’t have to express every little thing in order to be heard, Stiles just… got it. It was refreshing, and he was a little in awe of this whirlwind of a man whose life he seemed to fit into as easily as breathing.

"The shack up here with all of the animals is where we have the gumbo cookoff." He pointed out next as they walked.

"Naturally."

"And back there, the pavilion is where Tyler Hilton is playing tomorrow." Stiles continued merrily, clearly looking forward to this event. 

"What's that?" Derek asked, pointing over to a small undercover area which seemed to hold a small gathering of people of different ages sitting on hay bales stacked up and pallets and boxes up turned all creating a make-shift seating area.

"That's the jam booth," Stiles replied with a toothy grin.

"The jam booth?" Derek looked as they walked closer but couldn't get a clearer picture of what the purpose of this cosy area was for. He was vaguely picturing a booth which sold varieties of jam, but he couldn’t imagine why they would need so much space for that. And what would the hay be for?

"Stiles!" One of the older men sitting on a barrel just under the awning called out as they got closer.

"How you doin', Bud?" Derek watched as the two men shook hands with a familiar grin. While they were saying hello Derek took a closer look around at the group and noticed that despite the variety of people they all hand instruments of some description. A few of the younger children seemed to have tambourines and small drums, but several of the adults had fiddles and guitars in their hands, and suddenly the term 'Jam Booth' made a lot more sense.

"Why don't you play somethin'?"

"No, no, no." Stiles shook his head, cutting his eyes towards Derek and looking a little less comfortable than he had a moment ago. Derek wondered if he was worried that he would be leaving him to his own devices, or if it was more to do with feeling embarrassed for Derek to see him perform in some way. He hoped that Stiles would be convinced to play, even if he wasn’t particularly talented it would be amusing to watch, and he imagined that Stiles would be excellent at being the center of attention.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah!"

"Stiles, play something for us." A few different voices called out from further into the seating area and Stiles looked around and seemed to realise that he wasn't going to get out of this. He looked over to Derek once more, seeming to check that he wasn't about to either run away or burst out laughing, so Derek tried to give him an encouraging smile. Honestly, he was intrigued to see exactly which instrument Stiles was going to play. He seemed to be naturally clumsy, so the idea that he was musically gifted enough for people to call for him to play just seemed a little unexpectedly co-ordinated.

"Yeah. All right. I'll give you one." He answered finally, but though he had protested Derek noticed he didn't seem all that upset about having been cajoled into it, conceding quickly with a fond roll of his eyes.

"Can I borrow this?" He asked reaching out to the man across from Bud to take his fiddle. Derek raised his eyebrows in surprise at the choice of instrument as the man agreed and handed it over with a smile. No one else seemed surprised however, so hopefully Derek was about to be in for a shock.

"Thank you, sir. OK. Count me in."

Someone did and then Stiles began an upbeat tune on the fiddle, cheerful and festive and Derek couldn't do anything but stare. The minute he thought he had Stiles figured out he did something like this and just amazed him all over again. As he watched his long fingers fly over the strings and his lithe frame sway along to the beat Derek found himself captured and he wasn't at all sure he wanted to escape. 

Stiles made quite a sight, his hat swaying as he moved to the beat, his curly toed shoe tapping on the end of his foot where one long stripy leg was stretched out in front of him. It should have been ridiculous, but somehow it was completely adorable and Derek thought to himself that he would never look at an elf the same way again.

He shook his head swiftly to draw himself out of his awed stupor as Stiles finished off his performance with a flourish and a wide grin.

"Hey, thanks!" Stiles slapped Bud on the shoulder as he returned the borrowed instrument.

"That was fun! I'll see you guys around." 

Stiles turned from the group and gripped Derek's arm, towing him away, it seemed he was in a hurry to get them out of there before he could be pulled into another impromptu 'jam'. Derek thought that was a shame, and wondered if he could convince Stiles to give him a more private performance at some stage. Trying to pull his thoughts back from the not so PG-13 track they had run down, Derek refocused and tried to guess where Stiles was steering him.

Once they had put a little distance between them and the booth Stiles took his hand from Derek's arm and he tried not to feel sad that it hadn't lasted longer. He followed Stiles' lead as he made a bee-line for a long log serving as a bench over beside the creek and dropped onto it with the grace of an elephant.

"What was that?" Derek asked finally when they were settled.

"That was nothing." Stiles ducked his head as he replied but Derek didn't miss the slight pink tinge on his cheeks.

"Well, I had zero idea that you played the fiddle." He prodded, he wanted Stiles to know that he didn't need to be embarrassed, Derek was blown away.

"I don't play the fiddle, but I did learn a thing or two from my father as a child." He said modestly, still refusing to look up from his hands, tangling together in his lap.

"Well, that's just impressive." He said finally, wanting to make sure Stiles understood since he didn't seem to want to make eye contact right now. It was intriguing to see this side of him, Stiles had always seemed so self-assured and uncaring of other people’s judgements. Derek found himself oddly touched that he seemed to care what Derek thought of him and he vowed to make sure that he make Stiles regret being vulnerable with him.

"Thank you, very much. Speaking of impressive, over there is the very famous Christmas tree maze invented by yours truly." Stiles finally looked up from his feet, but he still didn't meet Derek's eyes. He pointed across the centre of the market towards a stall which was brightly coloured and decorated with multiple Christmas trees on the outside, each with a different style of decorations creating a very festive image.

"Really?" Derek smirked a little at the attempt to change the subject, but he decided not to embarrass Stiles any further by calling him on it.

"Mm-hmm." He hummed, but he finally looked at Derek and he could see the pride in his eyes.

"The Christmas Market used to just be shops and the arts and crafts over there, but over the years, we added fun stuff like this."

"And it was your brainchild?"

"Sure was."

"You feelin' adventurous?" Stiles asked nodding his head toward the maze.

"Yeah." Stiles smiled at him and stood, and suddenly Derek felt like playing around in a way he rarely did with anyone but his sister.

"Race ya!" He called out as he darted off ahead and didn't look back to check if Stiles would follow. He did only a few steps behind and with his long legs he caught up quickly as they raced together over to the entrance to the maze.

"This way. Hold on." Stiles grabbed hold of Derek's forearm again as he steered him through the opening between two ornately decorated ferns and then stopped short, breathing just a little more heavily in a way that in no way made Derek think of other things he could do to make Stiles out of breath, as they reached a fork in the maze. 

"Ooh, left or right?" Derek asked with a cheeky grin.

"I'm thinking right," Stiles answered after a moment of consideration.

"Probably left," Derek said at the same time, and they looked at each other in surprise. He was glad he had when Stiles turned to face him with a competitive gleam in his eye.

"Friendly wager?" Stiles suggested. "Whoever gets out first wins?"

"You're on." Derek nodded as he agreed and before he had finished the words Stiles had turned and ran to the right of the fork. He dashed off in the other direction and made his way as swiftly as possible through the turns determined to beat Stiles to the other end.

As Stiles turned and ran from Derek he chuckled to himself, he was constantly being surprised by this man's capacity for fun. Before this trip, he had been convinced that Derek was a stick in the mud who did nothing but read. Now, having spent some time with the man, he realised that it took him some time to get comfortable with people but once he did, he was charming and so much fun to be around.

Lost in thoughts of how he could have gone so long without knowing how sweet and genuine Derek really was, Stiles lost track of where he was going for a moment and stood in an opening with several paths turning in place as he tried to decide where to go. He hesitated for a moment too long and as he turned to go to the left he almost ran straight into the last person he wanted to see this holiday season.

"Hey, Stiles." Isaac greeted him with a somewhat sheepish smile, somehow looking up at him from underneath his ridiculous eyelashes despite being a good 3 inches taller than Stiles.

"Hi. Hey." He stumbled over his response, surprised to see Isaac and not sure how to act since they hadn't seen each other much since the breakup.

"Uh, um, I've just been meaning to talk to you." Isaac started and Stiles had a weird rolling sensation in his stomach as he began to suspect that this ‘accidental’ meeting hadn’t been all that ‘accidental’ on Isaac’s part, especially as he said "I, uh. I miss you."

"Isaac, you have a boyfriend." Stiles tone was slightly exasperated, but he managed to hold himself back from rolling his eyes at this development. Isaac broke up with him for Christ's sake.

"Yeah, I, I know, I know. I was just hoping we can get some coffee if you're free. Just, just coffee. I just miss talkin' to you every day, that's all." 

Stiles had never seen Isaac seem nervous like this before, and it made him feel bad for the guy but he wasn't willing to just ditch Derek, who was probably waiting for him at the end of the maze right now, and go for coffee with his ex who, oh yeah, already had a new boyfriend.

"All right, but that's what happens when you break up. You don't get to talk to the person every day anymore."   
Stiles was just barely holding back his snark by now, but honestly, what did the man expect? He had no idea that Derek wasn't really Stiles' boyfriend, he should have known better than to expect Stiles to be anything less than loyal to him. To top that even if he had been there alone he still would have been pissed, Isaac seemed to want to have his Jackson-cake and eat Stiles too!

"Yeah, I know. I was just hopin', I guess, that there's a part of you that just missed me, just a little bit?”

“Come on. It's my treat. Peppermint lattes. Like old times." He cajoled, pulling out the big guns and pouting in that way he knew Stiles had never been able to resist. My, but he was persistent, Stiles had forgotten that about him, and he really wasn't getting that this wasn't going to happen. For whatever reason, his righteous indignation over the situation or the fact he had a tall, dark and handsome man waiting for him (however platonically), Stiles didn’t find it all that hard to resist him this time. 

"But you have a Jackson and I have a Derek." Stiles insisted, his brow furrowing in disbelief that Isaac wasn't taking no for an answer.

"Come on, Mischief." He tried to be playful, but enough was enough. That was a family nickname, one that had to be earned and Isaac had lost that right when he had stomped all over Stiles' heart eight months ago.

"Don't call me that. OK?" He pushed past Isaac and rounded the corner without looking back only to find himself right by the exit. Thank goodness, he didn't know if Isaac would have come after him but he wasn't willing to take that chance.

Unfortunately, Derek wasn't waiting at the exit as Stiles had thought he would be, and he didn't want to pause there and wait for him so Stiles started walking away in the direction of the stall selling food and drinks. What he needed right now was a warm cider to calm him down. He decided he would go and pick up drinks for the two of them and then circle back around and try to find Derek. Hopefully, by then Isaac would have gone back to find Jackson.

He walked up to the little bridge to cross over the creek and as he looked up from the ground to check no one was coming over the narrow pathway he spotted Derek just at the other end and breathed a small sigh of relief. He was just a tiny bit concerned that Derek hadn't yet found his way out and was currently stuck in the maze with his ex-boyfriend. Or that he had somehow overheard their exchange and gotten the idea that Stiles was about to run off and reunite with Isaac.

"It took you long enough." Derek greeted him with a smug grin.

"Huh, sorry. I got distracted." Stiles hoped he wouldn't push for more information about what exactly had distracted him because he really didn't want to talk about it.

"That's all good," he said with an easy shrug and Stiles was so grateful he could have kissed the man.

"I got you some cider." He said handing Stiles a styrofoam cup from one hand as he took a sip of his own.

"Mmm, that's hot.” He said taking a sip of his own drink.

“What?" He asked as Stiles stood for a moment his jaw slightly open and stared at this amazing and surprising man.

"I'm happy you're here." He answered honestly and found he couldn't stop the smile from spreading across his face, Isaac long forgotten.

"Me too," Derek answered quietly as they walked together to wander around the rest of the market, and the smile on his own face was small but genuine and seemed meant just for Stiles.


	6. Teach a skill/game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Derek spends some time with the Stilinski family in their home and shares one of his own family traditions. Emotions are running high between our two lovable idiots, but can they get their acts together and actually do something about all this tension?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter six - we are officially halfway through people! And that means only 6 more days until Christmas which is very exciting. I hope that you are enjoying if you are reading along, and for those of you who are waiting until the whole fic is posted welcome to the half-way point! I've almost finished chapter eleven (which I'm just about to go and put the final touches on now) and then it's just the last chapter to go so I should be finished pretty soon.
> 
> Thank you all for reading and for the kudos, and a special thanks to MagicMel89 for leaving a comment on the last chapter, that meant a lot to me! I hope you enjoy this new chapter!

Later that evening Stiles' family was gathered around the dining table having an after-dinner drink and sharing stories of the Christmas Market over the years. Derek felt like his cheeks were beginning to ache from all the laughter and wondered if he had felt at home so quickly anywhere else. 

Meanwhile, Stiles was wondering how he was ever going to get through Christmas next year without being able to see the way Derek's smile lit up the room, and then swiftly kicked himself for getting too caught up in the man who had only agreed to come home with him as a trade-off for a website - which he should probably get working on.

"Well, Paige's out like a light," Scott informed them as he came in from taking his daughter to a guest room at their parent's house.

"Really? It's early." Melissa asked, surprised.

"Maybe it's because of all the cookies that somebody was sneaking to her earlier." Alison chimed in with a cheeky grin and an eye roll that made Stiles proud.

"Don't think we didn't notice," Scott added, attempting to look disapproving, which was about as effective as if Paige had tried it herself since Scott was so cherubic his rosy cheeks didn't really allow him to look anything but sweet.

"It's Christmas! Let her have the cookies." Stiles felt it was his job as 'fun uncle' to ensure that Paige didn't end up going without at Christmas, and honestly he had probably made matters worse as he had definitely given her a couple of cookies himself. Not that he was about to admit that and take any of the heat, he wasn’t a total fool.

"Uh, it's tradition," Melissa added throwing Stiles a wink.

"Can't mess with tradition." John had always been a lover of a good tradition, especially when it came to Christmas. Their family had so many and had adopted many more through the years so that it took them the whole month of December to manage them all.

"OK. Well, she's crashed now from all that sugar, but when she wakes up at 4:00 a.m., I am callin' her Memaw to come hang out with her." Alison finally threw out there, looking oh so innocently at her mother-in-law.

"All right, all right!" Melissa agreed, raising her hands in surrender, and Stiles didn't think she would really mind one bit getting to spend any extra time with her only grandchild. He had been on the receiving end of enough hints about providing some himself that he knew she would love more children around, as would his dad. 

Stiles wondered for a moment how Derek felt about kids. He had been spending a little time with Paige and had been nothing but indulgent with her, but getting along with kids was very different to actually wanting any of your own. 

Not that it mattered since he wouldn’t be having them with Stiles in either case, since they were just friends, Stiles reminded himself harshly before forcing himself to pay attention to the conversation still going on around him.

"Let the punishment fit the crime." Derek chuckled at John's contribution but was relieved that they wouldn't be expecting him to participate in the early morning punishment. He thought Paige was adorable, and he would be more than willing to get up early for his own child when the time came, but since that time wasn’t now he was happy to enjoy the extra sleep while he could. He could imagine Stiles would struggle with the early rising too, they were both night owls, but they would make it work he thought. Where had that thought come from? He needed to get his head on straight if he was already planning future families with the man.

"So, what did you think of the market today?" John asked turning to Derek and suddenly it seemed very important how he answered this question. Stiles' family was dedicated to this market, and if the way they had reacted to hearing Isaac's boyfriend's not so complimentary thoughts the night before had been any indication this was something he needed to get right. 

He wanted to make sure he showed them just how incredible he thought it was that their family had such a rich tradition. But, he didn't want to overdo it and make it seem like he was trying too hard. After a moments thought he settled for sincerity which seemed like the safest bet.

"I thought it was great. Yeah, the town has a lot of cool history to it. And you guys have a lot of interesting traditions."

"Yeah, the first Christmas I spent with these guys, I couldn't believe how many traditions they have here," Alison told him with a grin that showed off her dimples which combined with her pink cheeks from the wine she had been drinking made her look even younger than usual.

"Well, you brought some of your own." Scott reminded her.

"That's right"

"We bake gingerbread houses now, just like when she was a kid," Scott told Derek and he raised his eyebrows, surprised but glad to hear that the family was willing to adapt to including the family traditions of new members. It seemed to him that often families who celebrated Christmas so grandly were a little stuck in their ways and unwilling to include new traditions with the old. It was nice to see the Stilinski’s weren’t like that, though he shouldn’t be surprised given how warm and loving they seemed to be together, there wasn’t an ounce of stiffness to their interactions that spoke of long familiarity.

"And it was a great addition." Melissa raised her glass to Alison before she looked back to Derek to continue their conversation.

"So, Derek, does your family have any Christmas traditions?"

"None quite as extensive, uh, but we do play this fun game every year, Christmas Fishbowl."

"Fishbowl?" Stiles turned to him with a confused yet amused frown on his face. Derek had to stop himself from reaching out to smooth the lines from his forehead, an instinct which surprised him so he pushed it aside to worry about later.

"It's basically like charades but with a few added challenges," he explained.

"Oh, you wanna teach us?"

"Yeah, let's play!"

Everyone seemed enthusiastic and Derek didn't feel like he was going to be forcing anyone so he agreed quickly and then explained what he needed for the game. They gathered him some paper and pens to make the clues while they went in search of an old fishbowl from one of Stiles' many attempts to keep pets in his childhood.

Once he was ready they all picked up their drinks and headed outside to sit on the wrap-around porch so that they wouldn't have to worry about waking Paige if they got a little 'enthusiastic'. Something which Stiles quietly murmured to him was likely to happen since they were a cheerfully competitive bunch. Noone was likely to get angry (except Alison but even she was more likely to sulk) but they would be getting unintentionally loud!

~~***~~

Once they were all settled, Derek attempted to explain the rules.

"All right. Fishbowl. We have three rounds. First-round is like catchphrase. Second round is like charades, and the third round, you can only use one word to describe what's on the piece of paper. And we'll reuse all the same pieces of paper for all three rounds."

He looked around at them and Stiles was nodding along, but even he didn't look very sure he had understood. And everyone else looked completely puzzled.

"Uh, we'll figure it out as we play." He offered with a chuckle. "I'll go first, OK? Got the timer?"

"Ready and go!"

"OK. Um, all right. I'm mean and green."

"Grinch!" Stiles guessed.

"Yes, and now this happened to a specific part of my body." Derek continues with the clue but wonders if he should have perhaps phrased that differently, though maybe it's only him having trouble keeping his mind out of the gutter.

"Well, uh, heart, heart! The Grinch's small heart grew three sizes that day!" Stiles shouted out suddenly.

"Yes, yeah!"

"All right. I'm uh, Santa's helper." Derek said moving on to the next piece of paper he pulled from the fishbowl.

"An elf," John called out merrily.

"Yes, but I'm a recent thing that families have in their home.

"Uh, Elf on a Shelf!" Stiles called out slapping his thighs in time with the words and nearly distracting Derek entirely from the game they were playing.

"Yes!"

"Time" Scott informed them and Derek took his seat, glad that they seemed to be getting the hang of this.

"Good work, Dad," Stiles told his father as he stood to take his turn and Scott started the timer over.

They continued playing until they had each had a turn and then went on to the second and third rounds. By the time they got to the last few slips of paper it was Stiles' turn again and he seemed determined to get through to the bottom of the bowl despite them only being able to use one-word clues now, which made things a lot harder.

"OK. Kermit." He started, and he seemed to be looking only at Derek for answers as if he expected him to get it.

"Oh, oh. The Muppets, A Christmas Carol." Derek guessed after a moment with relief.

"Yes! OK. All right."

"Hey, he's cheating." Scott accused in the background but Stiles just rolled his eyes and looked at the final clue.

"OK, OK. Um, Uh, aortic?" He said after a moment of consideration. He had a frown on his face clearly worried that this one word wouldn't be enough to make it clear what the clue was.

"What? Aortic?" Derek looked down at his lap, puzzled and he could feel Stiles looking at him hopefully. It was only a game, but they had been getting a lot of each other's clues and he felt like they were so in sync that it seemed very important to get this right all of a sudden.

"15 seconds," Alison called out gleefully.

"Aortic. Which ones we have left?" Derek asked aloud, glancing at the others, but didn't really expect an answer, it seemed they were all leaving this one to him.

"10 seconds," It was Melissa this time, leaning over and checking the clock as it ticked down.

"Come on, come on," Stiles urged him hopping up and down from foot to foot and looking ridiculously adorable. Suddenly it clicked in Derek's mind, aortic - heart!

"Oh! And the Grinch's small heart grew three sizes that day!" He shouted and stood up in his excitement.

"Oh, yes, yes!" Stiles jumped up and down and grabbed Derek in a hug which took him by surprise but was not unwanted.

They embraced for a moment in their excitement, and then pulled away with a slight blush on their cheeks as they realised exactly what they had done unthinkingly.

They sat back down their faces split with grins that neither seemed able to stop and tried to catch their breath.

"I was gonna say Whoville, but I thought you would think it was the Cindy LuWho thing from earlier," Stiles said after a moment.

"No, that was a really good clue."

"It was?"

"Yes!" Derek said enthusiastically and Stiles' blush deepened. He wondered if there was any way his family suspected they weren't really together now, they had been so in sync tonight.

As they all smiled and thanked Derek for teaching them the game and talked about how much fun they had, he was left thinking about how seamlessly Derek seemed to fit into his family and his life. It hardly felt fair that it would be over soon. 

Sadness welled up in Stiles with a ferocity that surprised him and he felt his smile grow stiff as he realised that Christmas was getting closer and therefore so was the end of this charade they were putting on. It seemed so harmless when he had agreed to it, but now he was beginning to think he would end up nursing something much worse than a bruised ego when this was all over.

~~***~~

Once everything was packed away they all turned in for the night and Derek sat in front of his laptop feeling that he really ought to get some work done, but today had been exhausting. Stiles was hard to keep up with, and on top of that, he felt like his emotions were all over the place. He found himself swinging unexpectedly from being wildly happy while spending time with Stiles and his family, and deeply sad as he realised that Christmas was fast approaching and soon he would be back to his quiet New York apartment. 

He hoped that by now he and Stiles had grown closer and would be friends when they got home, so it's not like he would never see the man again. But there again was a double-edged sword that he felt it might be more difficult to have Stiles in his life so much more, yet not quite as much as he was beginning to want him there. Still, he would rather that than go back to seeing Stiles only when Lydia gave them a reason to be around each other.

A soft knock at the door shook him from his thoughts, which was probably just as well since he didn't have any solutions to his swirl of insecurities and worries about what might happen when Christmas was over.

"Come in."

"Hi," Stiles said quietly, obviously trying not to wake the rest of the house. By now they had both noticed they were usually the last ones awake as they seemed to work late into the night.

"Hey."

"I just wanna say good night."

"Good night," Derek answered with a soft smile, secretly pleased that Stiles had sought him out. Stiles hesitated for a moment in the doorway before continuing.

"Thanks for doing this. I really do appreciate it." He finally said, a light blush reaching his cheeks as he glanced down at his feet in an uncharacteristically shy move. Derek's breath caught in his throat for a moment and he found it difficult to respond when struck with such an adorable look. He rallied and attempted to get himself back on an even footing by reminding them both of why he was doing this.

"Of course. A deal's a deal," he responded with a slight shrug, instead of grabbing Stiles and kissing the breath out of him which was his first instinct.

"OK. Good night." Stiles backed out of the doorway in his elf Christmas socks and softly closed the door.

Derek stared at that door for a moment with a sigh, it was a bad sign that he had found those socks attractive and sweet rather than annoying. He wondered if Stiles was remotely aware of things changing between them and if he should take a chance and put himself out there.

Unfortunately, Derek was not the more outgoing of the two of them, and though sometimes he felt like Stiles was looking at him with interest too he couldn't shut off that little voice in his head. The one that said, "you're a broke writer and Stiles deserves better"; or "Stiles is so direct about everything, he definitely would tell you if he wanted more."

Turning his chair back to the laptop and the list of events to include in his ghost-written novel his eye caught on the third item on the list 'teach a skill/game'. He ticked that one off and managed to write a few pages of the story inspired by their evening. It was beginning to come together, and if he used the pages to write a slightly more romanticised version of events where tension was obvious between his two characters in a twisted form of wish fulfilment, then no one had to know but him.

About an hour later he dragged himself over to the bed and stripped off his clothes on the way, crashing on to the pillow in just his t-shirt and boxers. Exhausted, but happy that things were going so well, and in his overtired state managing to convince himself that tomorrow he might be brave enough to ask Stiles to go on a real date when they got back to reality. He drifted off quickly with a smile on his face.


	7. Dance Under the Stars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Derek gets a grilling from some of Stiles family and then they watch Tyler Hilton perform while sharing another dance. A minor appearance from a familiar character pushes Stiles to confront some of his feelings, and Derek begins to open up in ways he never has before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Our boys are finally getting somewhere! Thank you all for reading and your comments - keep them coming I really appreciate it.

Stiles took a look around at the Market with a wide smile. He never failed to be amazed at how much joy and Christmas Spirit he could find in this wonderful place, and he took a deep breath as he walked to take in the mixture of smells. It shouldn’t work, pine and gingerbread, sugar cookies and the gumbo spices all blending together probably ought to be overwhelming, but to Stiles, it smelled like Christmas in a way that nothing else did.

He strolled back over to the volunteer table where his dad was, he had just finished showing a new volunteer to their station and showing them the ropes. He could hear Mr Rocky telling the group of kids sitting at his feet, including Paige, the Cajun Night Before Christmas and chuckled to himself at the thought that he hadn’t realised there was anything unusual about that version until he was about 19 and he had heard the original version in a bookshop story corner when shopping in New York. Stiles made a mental note to make sure that Derek got to hear their traditional version of the tale before he went home, he was pretty sure that Derek would appreciate the differences.

“Well, it looks like everything is under control,” Stiles told his dad when he reached the setup table covered in tinsel and with giant candy canes either side to indicate that it was a signup station.

“Yep! Why don’t you go have some fun?” John replied pulling Stiles into a sideways hug with an arm around his shoulders. Stiles was a little taller than him now and it might have been an awkward angle, but it was something that his dad had been doing since he was a kid and he was willing to bend down to make it work because something about it made him feel safe.

“Where’s Derek?”

“Oh, he’s over with Mel and Miss Meredith” Stiles responded, turning automatically towards the stall his step-mother and Isaac’s mom ran, to check that Derek was alright. He’d sent him over there thinking that at least he would know someone and hopefully not be too uncomfortable, however, even from this distance he could see the two older ladies were asking him a lot of questions and he was suddenly not so sure that he had made the wisest decision leaving him there.

“Actually, I think I will go and rescue him. It looks like Mom and Miss Meredith are giving him the third degree.” Stiles told his dad with a chuckle and hurried off to grab Derek away from the inquisition.  
~~***~~

“Derek, we’ve met Lydia of course but do you have any other siblings?” Melissa asked Derek and he paused for a moment wondering exactly how he should answer. He didn’t know how much Stiles’ family really knew about his situation, and he didn’t love bringing up the accident at Christmas but he also didn’t want to lie.

“Well, technically Lydia is more of an adopted sister. When I was about 14 my parents died in an accident and Lydia and her parents were close family friends, I didn’t have any other family in the area and they took me in. But we don’t have any other siblings.” He got through the explanation as quickly as possible and concentrated on arranging the ornaments on the table in front of him to give the ladies a moment to take in the information without having to worry about showing any emotions on their faces as he looked at them.

To her credit, Melissa only took one extra beat to gather herself before asking another question and edging the conversation into safer topics by asking how long Susan and Richard had been married. They had already asked him about growing up in New York and some about what he did for a living, but he found he didn’t mind the questions so much. He wasn’t great at being sociable but Stiles’ friends and family had made it easy for him, asking leading questions but not expecting him to give in-depth responses. 

Derek had just finished telling them that his parents were about to celebrate their 32nd wedding anniversary when he felt a touch on his shoulder and turned to find Stiles with a sheepish grin. He was looking simultaneously amused at finding Derek being questioned, and guilty for having left him alone to deal with it. Derek understood that he was here to help out his family so he wasn’t upset at being left for a while, but he was glad that Stiles was back and it really had very little to do with avoiding questions from inquisitive family members.

Stiles looked to Melissa and Meredith, “Sorry to interrupt but can I borrow the very handsome writer for a moment?” He asked them politely, but he was already wrapping a hand around Derek’s upper arm and pulling him gently away so it was obvious he wasn’t about to take no for an answer.

“You know, that nickname is really starting to grow on me.” Derek said with a smile at Stiles, because no matter the circumstances being called ‘very handsome’ by this man would always be something to celebrate in his book. And if teasing him a little about it meant that Stiles would be blushing, and would take the attention off of Derek’s own blush, then even better.

The ladies didn’t object, but they did call after Derek to make sure he gave them his mother’s address so that they could send some personalised ornaments over. It was very sweet so he agreed readily and then he and Stiles were around a corner and giggling over their escape.

Stiles was still chuckling but he wanted to make sure they hadn’t been pushing Derek too hard so he asked if it had gone alright.

“It was fine, they just asked a bunch of questions about my job and family.”

“They were grilling you.” Stiles agreed with a nod and Derek knew that was true but it hadn’t felt too invasive. Plus as far as they were aware he was in Stiles’ life now, possibly for a long while, and it was only fair they wanted to check him out a little.

“Yeah, but with gifts” he joked, wanting Stiles to know that he really hadn’t minded.

“The Southern way!” Stiles was relieved that Derek hadn’t felt too pressured by the ladies questions, and he was a little curious about the answers himself so he might have to do a bit of digging later to see what exactly he had told Melissa. Of course, he would have to be careful, because he probably ought to already know the answers to the questions they had been asking.

They continued walking and as they hadn’t eaten since breakfast Stiles suggested they go and check out the gumbo cookoff, which apparently Scott had entered. Derek readily agreed and made sure not to show any fear when Stiles mentioned that it could be pretty spicy.

When he had been walking back from the bathroom earlier he had overheard a conversation between Isaac and Jackson about the same gumbo. Jackson had been asking if it was vegan, and Isaac had laughed before realising it wasn’t a joke and when he had informed his boyfriend that no it definitely wasn’t vegan Jackson had sulked somewhat like a child and Isaac had not looked pleased.

He wasn’t sure, but he felt like eating and enjoying this beloved traditional dish, and not complaining about things like the heat, might be a good way to endear himself to Stiles and his family. So he wasn’t taking any risks that he might insult them by doing the opposite.

They approached the gumbo booth as Mr Rocky announced Scott as the winner of the ‘golden gumbo pot’ for apparently the second year in a row. Stiles reached up to grab them a couple of bowls from the table and handed one to Derek as he congratulated his brother, then they walked on further round the market to eat them while they took in the sites.

Stiles did warn him once again that it was spicy, but Derek took a mouthful anyway and promptly realised he had underestimated just how spicy it would be. He felt his eyes begin to water and his cheeks getting hot, but he persevered and swallowed the mouthful before commenting, narrowly avoiding embarrassing himself by crying outright.

“Oh my god, that’s like lava!” he told Stiles, his reaction was written all over his face so there was no point trying to hide it to save his pride, Stiles was already laughing at him and he comfortably took a large spoonful and didn’t even grimace.

“You’ll be okay.” He reassured Derek with a pat on the back and then informed him that he was not allowed to drink milk or anything to take the heat away because it would ruin the flavour. Stiles was clearly enjoying his pain a little too much but Derek couldn’t bring himself to mind when he seemed so happy and there was a light in his eyes that made the world a little brighter.

“Hey, let me ask you something?” Derek heard himself saying without really thinking it through, he felt like Stiles’ smile and the joy in his face had hypnotised him and he was saying out loud something that he had only barely thought about. But halfway through the question he realised exactly what he was doing and paused even as Stiles had nodded in agreement.

“When we get back home, and you know, things settle down...” was he really going to do this? Actually ask Stiles to go on a date. 

Things had been going really well the last few days but he wasn’t sure how much of that was for the benefit of Stiles family, and suddenly all the reasons that he had cancelled their date 6 months ago came rushing back to him. What was he thinking? Stiles was probably just being polite, and anything further was in his head. He certainly wasn’t confident enough in the answer to ask this question yet, and if he asked and Stiles said no the next couple of days before they went home were going to be really uncomfortable.

Stiles was nodding and looking hopeful, but Derek wasn’t sure what he was hoping for so he made a swift decision to drop the heavier question and improvised.

“Would you ah, would you teach me how to make this gumbo?” Derek finished lamely, ducking his head to avoid meeting Stiles’ eyes at his obvious course change of the conversation. When he looked up again he could see on Stiles’ face that he had been expecting something else, but he couldn’t tell if he was disappointed or relieved that it had turned out to be an innocent question.

“Yeah, sure” he agreed quickly, and Derek let out a breath. Stiles wasn’t going to call him on the fact that he would obviously never be eating it again given his bright pink face, or that he had clearly been about to say something completely different and changed his mind. 

However, it felt like a small victory, if nothing else he now had an excuse to see Stiles once they were back in New York for something that didn’t involve his sister. Maybe he would have to be satisfied with that.

They didn’t talk much after that, both caught up in their own thoughts, so they finished their gumbo in relative quiet and walked further into the market to the area where the musical acts were performing. Derek and Stiles hadn’t caught any of these yet, but this afternoon Tyler Hilton was scheduled to perform so they had already made plans to meet up there with the rest of the family. Apparently before his set the two patriarchs John and Mr Rocky would be receiving the keys to the city from the Mayor. 

Suddenly remembering that as they walked into the barn-like space with hay bales decorating it, Derek was even gladder he hadn’t pushed and asked Stiles out, this afternoon would have been really uncomfortable if he had said no. And he wouldn’t have wanted to give Stiles any negative memories on a day that should be a celebration.

They mingled for a while as the crowd gathered to see the presentation, but Derek stuck close to Stiles because he wanted to avoid being quizzed any further. Then suddenly a hush fell over the crowd and they all turned to look up at the small stage in front the dance floor.

On the stage was a band set up with drums and acoustic guitars and a small Christmas tree to one side, glowing brightly and setting a warm light over the garlands hanging from the bottom of the stage. In the centre stood the Major in front of the microphone.

“Well Hello everybody. How are you all doing?” The Mayor asked and paused for a general answer of cheers for the crowd who seemed to be having a good time.

“Good, good. It’s been thirty years of this wonderful market and I’d like to bring up here the two people responsible for all this.” He continued, waving his hand at the surroundings indicating the whole market. He called out for Stiles dad and Isaac’s and they made their way up on stage to much applause and Stiles whistling loudly as his father rolled his eyes and shook his head.

“John Stilinski and Rocky Lahey - congratulations. For all your hard work and dedication to our city, I would like to present to you both the key to the city. Let’s give them a round of applause.”

John stepped forward to take his key and smiled at the crowd who was cheering again. They both took a moment to thank their families, and the volunteers, for all their help and then left the stage to head back down. Stiles grabbed his dad in a bear-hug and congratulated him as did the rest of the family and then they all turned back to the stage as the Mayor came forward again to announce the musical guest.

“Let’s all give it up, for Tyler Hilton!”

The singer himself, who Derek now recognised from the many cd cases scattered around the Stilinski family home, took centre stage and announced a new Christmas album and then began to sing. Stiles hooted and hollered in excitement and Derek could see his whole face light-up. They stood with the family for a few minutes and then Stiles moved away to greet someone.

~~***~~

Stiles spotted his cousin across the dancefloor and hurried over to pick Erica up in a big sweeping hug that lifted her feet off the floor. They hadn’t had a chance to see each other this trip, but she had been hearing all about the new man in his life from their extended family he was sure, and she probably had a million questions for him.

Luckily for him, she was aware of where they were and kept it succinct. “Is that your new boyfriend?” She asked with a cheeky grin and a wiggle of her impeccably sculpted eyebrows, nodding over to where Derek was talking to his dad whilst glancing over to check that Stiles was okay.

Stiles smiled at him, and the broad smile he got in return was enough to distract him from immediately answering her question. When Derek looked at him like that he felt like everything melted away and an ember of warmth lit him up from the inside, spreading through every part of him until he was aglow with it. He couldn’t remember ever feeling that way with any of his partners before, for any reason let alone a simple look, and his breath caught in his throat as he let himself drown a little in the green/blue eyes locked on his.

A swift elbow to his side reminded him Erica was still waiting for his answer, but he didn’t know how to answer her question. They didn’t usually lie to each other and he knew that she would understand the situation, but this wasn’t exactly the best place for this conversation. Also telling Erica that Derek wasn’t really his boyfriend would mean admitting to himself that he wasn’t exactly thrilled about that fact because she would definitely be able to tell how hung up he was on the gorgeous man. He didn’t feel like he was concealing it all that well, but at least to everyone but Derek it was expected, and hopefully, Derek thought he was ‘acting’ for the sake of appearances.

He must have hesitated for a moment too long, because when he looked away from Derek and back to his cousin she had a knowing smile on her face and said, “Well, he should be!” 

Before Stiles could decide exactly how to respond to that statement either, Derek had walked over to join them and it was too late. Stiles introduced him to Erica who gave him a predatory smile and flipped her hair, but then giggled and wrapped an arm around Stiles to show she was just teasing.

“Hey, do you want to go maybe get something to drink?” Stiles asked as the music continued, he wanted to make sure to give Derek some space from all the people so that he didn’t get too overwhelmed but to his surprise, Derek shook his head and held out his hand.

“No, why don’t we dance?” he replied, taking Stiles completely by surprise. 

“Are you sure?” he answered with a furrowed brow, this seemed like asking too much since he knew Derek to be somewhat of a wallflower. But before he had even agreed Derek was towing him by the hand onto the dancefloor and pulling him close enough to put his other hand on the small of Stiles’ back.

Tyler was still singing, and it was a slow enough Christmas song to allow them to sway together, which was just as well because Stiles didn’t think he could manage much else with Derek’s arms wrapped around him so suddenly. His heart was beating so hard in his chest that he felt sure the other man would feel it as they pressed together.

They listened to the music and moved for a few moments, Stiles taking in the warmth of being held this way. Derek wasn’t much taller than him, but he was broader in his shoulders and so he made Stiles feel small in a comfortable way that made him want to sink further into Derek’s embrace and stay there. 

“I’m glad I’m here,” Derek told him after a minute, and Stiles looked up to meet his eyes to see nothing but sincerity there so he responded in kind.

“Me too.”

“And your family has been really nice to me.” He continued, Stiles wondered if he was concerned about what they might think of him when this whole arrangement was over but honestly he supposed there wasn’t any reason for them to see him again. That was actually a shame as they seemed to have taken to him so well.

“They like you well enough. Even Scott’s come around.” Stiles jokes. Honestly, Scott was a puppy and he liked everyone, but he had definitely felt a little more protective of Stiles since Isaac had broken his heart so it probably took him a little longer than usual to warm up to Derek.

“It’s weird, I feel like I’ve known about you for a long time. But then I came here and it’s like, I didn’t know anything about you.” Derek looks into his eyes as he speaks and Stiles can tell that he is really trying to open up here and so he curbs his instinct to respond with a joke or sarcasm and forces himself to be just as honest.

“Same.” He manages to say. Unusually brief for him, and Derek is talking far more than usual but he supposes that perhaps that’s the point. They are both learning things about each other and there are a lot more sides to them than they had been aware of before. 

“I’m sorry, by the way.”

“Sorry for what?” Stiles asks, confused.

“Cancelling our date.” It takes Stiles a moment to understand that Derek means the one Lydia had set them up on all those months ago. He still isn’t clear on what happened there, and the reminder does make him question whether he should be concerned that whatever put Derek off then will do the same now.

“Oh Derek, you don’t have to apologise for that.” He tries to brush it off, he actually isn’t sure he wants to know why exactly Derek didn’t deem him worthy of a date. It’s probably going to hurt more than it should.

“No, look, Stiles, I remember you and Isaac at Lydia’s wedding. And I’m just, I’m not some super successful guy like that. I live in a five-story walk-up with three roommates!” He exclaims. Stiles is surprised, because he doesn’t seem to like many other people so he must be there purely due to necessity, but that doesn’t matter to him.

“That’s okay.” He tries to reassure Derek, not that he is certain why he thinks that would matter to Stiles, but he chuckles a little in surprise.

“No, it’s not” Derek laughs along with him so thankfully he wasn’t offended. 

“What I’m getting at is that me bailing was nothing to do with you. I was worried that I maybe wasn’t good enough for you.” 

Stiles shook his head as Derek took a breath. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing, Derek was beginning to colour in embarrassment and he seemed genuinely upset that he hadn’t told Stiles this sooner. Before he could decide how to respond Derek carried on talking.

“And now, that we’re here you know, I can’t help feeling like I missed a really amazing opportunity.” He said looking down and away from Stiles gaze, he couldn’t bring himself to regret saying that but also it was going to open up a can of worms he wasn’t entirely sure he was ready to deal with. 

Derek wasn’t entirely sure where this sudden bought of honesty and bravery had come from. It might have been that Stiles felt so right in his arms, and the thought that after this week was over he might never get to feel that again was far scarier than any possible rejection might be.

“Well, maybe this was how it was always supposed to go?” Stiles said, ducking his head a little to try and catch Derek’s eye. 

Derek breathed a sigh of relief, he still wasn’t sure exactly where they stood but now wasn’t the time to go into it further and he was happy that Stiles didn’t seem to be running away from him now so they could figure this out properly later.

“I hope so.” He said finally, and he really did. If Stiles would give him a chance to prove that he could be someone worth spending more than just Christmas with, then he would take it.


	8. Give him a Flower

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles and Derek share a special moment involving a flower.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is a short one - sorry about that! I would have pushed it together with another chapter, but then I would be one short to post every day until Christmas so you get a short one.
> 
> It's still sweet and has a much anticipated moment so hopefully, you all enjoy it, and luckily only one day to wait until the next chapter is up.

They stayed later that night, dancing and spending time with Stiles’ friends and family. Once the rest of the visitors had begun to clear out Derek suggested they take a walk over to the little bridge across the river so they could see all the lights. They stood there for a while chatting and feeling festive as they took in the glow of the lights on the river and the sounds of the families spending the holidays together.

“Okay. Would you rather, have Santa’s magical time abilities…” Derek began, continuing the game he and Stiles had been playing for a while.

“Magical time abilities?” Stiles questioned in confusion.

“Yeah, how he can go around the whole work in one night.”

“Right, right.”

“Or… get to keep a reindeer?” Derek finished, finally looking very seriously to Stiles for his answer.

“I mean, it depends on the reindeer,” Stiles answered with a straight face and Derek raised his eyebrows in surprise.

“Really?” Derek was pretty sure that Stiles was messing with him, he had been sure he knew what the answer would be. But there was still that little voice in the back of his mind whispering that he didn’t know the man as well as he thought he did.

“No! Magical time abilities, obviously. Besides, I’m not taking some poor reindeer away from its family.” Stiles answered with a chuckle and Derek was relieved he hadn’t been so far off base with his expectation.

“Alright, good answer.” He agreed.

“Give me a harder one!” Stiles asked, giving him a challenging look that made sparks fly between them in what was becoming the familiar push and pull of their relationship that Derek was beginning to love.

They had always had an antagonistic relationship, filled with barbs and quick insults, but now that they knew each other better the insults seemed less pointed. It felt more like fun back and forth, and though they still challenged each other it was playful instead of hurtful. Derek liked it, he hoped they would always be pushing each other’s buttons, in a good way.

He paused for a minute to think and an idea popped into his mind. He hesitated to bring it up, and it might have been foolhardy but on an impulse, but he decided to go with it while he was feeling brave.

“Okay. Would you rather spend Christmas with your best friends brother...” he paused for a beat to check Stiles’ reaction to the start of the question. He looked surprised, but not upset and Derek felt that as long as he ended this question on a light note that it wouldn’t rock the very delicate balance of friendship and a mild flirtation that they currently had going.

“Or, with one of Santa’s elves. But not just any old elf, the most handsome elf in Santa’s workshop.” 

“That guy?” Stiles answered with a smirk and Derek nodded amused that Stiles was still willing to play along.

“Him.”

“Oooh” Stiles looked away, considering for a moment his options but when he turned back to Derek his face changed from playful to serious and his eyes softened. Derek took a sharp breath, wondering what he was about to hear.

“Handsome’s overrated,” Stiles said finally. He could take that a few ways, having been referred to as ‘the very handsome writer’ several times in the last few days. But the glint in Stiles’ amber eyes and the soft smile on his face certainly seemed to indicate that he wouldn’t trade spending Christmas with Derek for all of Santa’s elves.

Derek stared into Stiles’s’ eyes for a moment longer, but then a movement caught his gaze in the periphery behind Stiles’s head and he glanced over to see Scott waving them over and the whole family gathered across the river and looking in their direction. His smile widened and he rolled his eyes a little, feeling somewhat glad that they didn’t live here full time. He and Stiles had only really been alone on this trip when it was so late the rest of the family was asleep.

Stiles followed his eye line, realising that Derek was no longer paying attention to their conversation. He was a little disappointed that he hadn’t responded to that last answer, but honestly, they were still figuring things out so he wasn’t completely surprised.

“My family is spying on us,” He said as he realised what had caught Derek’s eye. Scott had the subtlety of an excited puppy and though Melissa and John weren’t being quite so obvious in their staring they also weren’t hiding it as well as they thought they were.

“We better go.” Stiles finally said after another moment, looking over to Derek who didn’t react immediately.

“What?” He asked, trying to decipher the look on Derek’s face, disappointment maybe.

“Nothing, we should catch them up” he responded after a pause. Stiles could tell he had wanted to say more but stopped himself from asking what. Derek had opened up more tonight that Stiles had heard him do in the years they had known each other through Lydia.

They could both sense a little reluctance to leave their bubble. It had been nice, getting to hang out and not worry about the way anyone else was interpreting their interactions. Stiles assumed that he had wanted to suggest they stay but thought better of it since they didn’t exactly have another ride home, and it was getting late so it was probably best they called it a night.

~~***~~

John pushed shut the door to the jeep and walked around the back as Stiles and Melissa headed up the path.

“John, you coming to bed?” Mel called out, turning back to see why he wasn’t following her in.

“I’ll be in a minute darlin’” he answered, opening the trunk and putting out a hand to touch Derek’s shoulder and stop him as he walked by the back end of the car to follow the ladies inside.

“Hold on a minute Derek, could you give me a hand here?”

Since the last time he had offered to help with something like this John hadn’t seemed inclined to take his help, Derek was surprised to be asked. He wasn’t sure if this was a good sign, that John was warming up to him, or if he should be concerned that he was creating an opportunity to speak to him alone. Regardless, it was probably best to agree to assist him because declining wouldn’t help with either scenario.

“Yes sir, of course.” He agreed quickly with a nod.

John handed him a box, it was fairly light, but there were several and they weren’t small so he definitely would have needed some assistance to get them all in without multiple trips. Of course, Stiles could have helped with that, but he seemed to be sitting on the porch with Melissa deep in conversation when Derek looked over for some support.

~~***~~

“Hey Stiles, come sit with me a minute?” Melissa asked as they climbed up the steps to the house and led him over to the swing on the wrap-around porch and took a seat.

Stiles sat down facing his step-mother and she took his hands in hers. He felt like he ought to be nervous, but she was smiling even though there were tears in her eyes so he tried not to think the worst.

“There’s something I wanna tell you.” She began and Stiles took a deep breath as he stared at her dark brown eyes, worry taking hold as she brought up the one subject that always increased his nerves “I spoke to Dr Deaton today.”

“You know I’ve been in remission for five years?”

Stiles wished she wouldn’t pause there, oh god. He didn’t know what he would do if she was sick again.

“Yeah.” He said wearily, nodding to urge her to go on.

“Well, he called to say that I am, technically and officially, cancer-free!” She said with a giggle.

Stiles let out the breath he had been holding in a rush, then launched forward to grab her in a hug. “Really? That’s amazing!” he exclaimed.

“This is like the best present ever!” He told her as they parted “Merry Christmas, Mom.” He gave her another hug before turning to see what had become of Derek. He wasn’t sure why but he desperately wanted to share this news with him.

~~**~~

“I can see that you like Stiles very much,” John told Derek as he loaded another box into his arms. Derek was simultaneously glad that John could see the affection he had for Stiles and chagrinned that it wasn’t exactly supposed to be so easy for him to fool Stiles parents. If he was being honest with himself then Derek wasn’t sure he was ever really faking his feelings.

“Thank you.” He replied, for lack of a better response. He still wasn’t entirely sure where John was going with this.

“And I think you’re pretty brave coming here. See um, Isaac and Stiles have a long history.” Derek dropped his gaze, wondering if this was going to be the shovel talk or just John subtly hinting that Stiles would be better off with Isaac.

“I like him a lot.” He continued and Derek’s heart sank. “But he never looked at Stiles quite like you do. He’s special, I’ve got a feeling that you will let him shine.”

Derek looked up again and met John’s eyes in surprise.

“Thank you.” It meant a lot to him to have the approval of Stiles’ father who was so protective of his son. Derek walked inside with the boxes and since Stiles was already upstairs he headed off to bed himself, but the conversation played on his mind and he wondered if maybe he should use some of that encouragement to push himself out of his comfort zone for a change.

Looking down at the list of events for his novel he realised he could tick off another one; ‘Dance under the Stars’ and then below that he saw something inspiring. Before he could overthink it too much he grabbed his journal and sent Stiles a text message to meet him on the bench out the front of the house in 20 minutes. Then he set to work on surprising this amazing man with a gift from his heart.

~~**~~

“Hey” Stiles approached Derek as he sat on the well-kept but worn wooden bench on the front of his parent’s yard. The sun had long since gone down, and there was a chill in the air so that his light sweater was just enough to keep him from shivering. 

He joined Derek in the pool of light cast by the old fashioned street lamp above them and wrapped his arms around himself to keep the cold air from sneaking under his clothes.

“Hey, you got my text.” Derek greeted Stiles with a smile, he hadn’t gotten a response so he was glad that Stiles had noticed the message and decided to meet him.

“I did. What you got there?” Stiles asked nodding down to the flower in Derek’s hand. He had used his notes and cut them into petal shapes to create a paper flower to give Stiles, he wasn’t sure if he would appreciate the gift of a flower but hoped that since he had made it himself and not just bought or picked it that it would be meaningful to him.

“A little something for you,” He replied looking down at the delicate flower and feeling more bashful than he had thought he would.

“Did you make me a present?” Stiles asked, his smile splitting his face and brightening all of his features at the gesture.

“I did.” He replied, handing the stem to Stiles who took it gently and looked down at it with a soft smile on his face. The rough edges of the petals added to the charm of the carefully made rose in his hands and he didn’t think he had ever been given something so thoughtful.

“What are these, pages from your journal?” Derek nodded, surprised that Stiles had noticed that so quickly.

“They are. Good eye.”

“When you’re rich and famous, this will be worth so much money.” Stiles teased him.

“Oh yeah, you’re gonna be able to retire on that flower.” He replied with a chuckle.

“What did you wanna talk about?” Stiles asked after a moment when it seemed that Derek wasn’t going to continue the conversation himself.

“Well, I just wanted to see how you were doing. How you thought all this was going? Just checking in.” Derek began, trying to sound casual and probably falling painfully far of the mark. He wanted to ease his way into the real reason that he had asked Stiles to meet him here.

“Just checking in huh?” Stiles asked with a smirk, so obviously, Derek had been far from subtle.

He decided to lean into it since Stiles still seemed receptive so he moves towards him a little on the bench and pushed his glasses up his nose with a broad smile.

“Yeah. I don’t know. How am I doing? Are you happy?” he worded it carefully to be open to interpretation, but he genuinely wanted to know if spending time with Derek was making Stiles happy.

Thankfully Stiles looked up from his lap where he had been examining the flower again and with a light blush on his cheeks, he answered Derek’s question. “Yes. I’m very happy.” He gave Derek a soft and intriguing smile that he wanted to see aimed at him as often as possible.

“Good. Yeah me too.” Derek responded and tried to give Stiles a similar smile, he felt his face soften with fondness and was happy to see that the man sitting next to him didn’t seem to be discouraging his flirtations. He had been careful up until now to keep things friendly, but today he had felt things changing between them and he hoped that Stiles would be willing to give him a chance.

The air felt thicker between them for a moment, and Derek decided to take the opportunity to ask the question he really called Stiles out here for.

“When we go home, how would you feel about trying this for real?” He paused a moment to see Stiles reaction. His eyes lit up with something that looked a lot like hope and gave Derek the courage to continue. “I’d like to take you on a real date. No contract.”

Stiles smile widened and he looked about as happy ass Derek had ever seen him. Then he schooled his face into a more serious expression and with false casualness said “Oh yeah, I mean, I could be into that.” He shrugged his shoulders as though he couldn’t care less, but when he turned back to Derek he couldn’t keep his smile from spreading again.

“You’re not going to bail on me again though right?” He asked after a moment, and though he was still smiling there was a hint of insecurity in his eyes now. Derek regretted that his past actions had put that insecurity there but he was determined to make sure Stiles wouldn’t need to feel that way again.

“Mm-mm” he murmured, shaking his head, deciding that instead of giving a big speech about how much he wanted to prove himself to Stiles he would be better off speaking with his actions. So he learnt forward and moved into Stiles space bringing their mouths together in a gentle kiss.

Their lips moved together, softly and smoothly without any of the friction of their early argumentative interactions. Derek felt a shiver run through him that had nothing to do with the cold of the air surrounding them and everything to do with the pure joy and warmth he felt at finally connecting with Stiles in a real way that felt like it would change him forever.

They parted after a few moments and Derek was content for them to rest their foreheads together and catch their breath. It was perfect and he couldn’t have asked for more at that moment. They stayed there, wrapped up in each other for longer than was probably a good idea with the falling temperatures, but Derek didn’t feel the cold. With Stiles wrapped in his arms, and sharing soft kisses and softer words, he felt wrapped in warmth and happiness.

A little while later when finally they pulled themselves inside, it was harder than ever to part to their separate rooms and say goodnight. Stiles found that for the first time he was wishing Christmas would hurry up and get here so that they could get back to New York and really see what this thing that was building between them could be.


	9. Bonfire Explosions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Isaac makes a spectacular return and things are getting more complicated by the minute.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow! We are getting closer to the end now guys. I'm so happy that people are enjoying this, and thank you so much for all the kudos and comments!

“Good morning Sleepy-Head.” Derek grabbed a cup for some coffee as Melissa greeted him. He and Stiles had been outside for a little while longer last night before they had gotten too cold and parted to go to bed. However, he hadn’t been able to sleep and had been up far later than he realised writing after feeling more inspired than he had in months.

The trouble was his inspiration was leading to this Parker Halliwell novel becoming far more in-depth then he had assumed, and it felt a lot more like he was writing the story of he and Stiles than he had expected. It was nice to be writing something so personal, and he really liked what he had, but he wasn’t sure if he really wanted to share that with the world. Now that this fiction was finally becoming a reality between them it didn’t feel right to publish it without Stiles’ permission.

As if he had summoned him by thinking about him Stiles entered the kitchen just at that moment, kissing his niece on the side of her head and greeted him while grabbing a piece of gingerbread from the side which was cooling ready to be built into houses by the family who were all gathered in the kitchen together.

“You’re two peas in a pod. Stiles is our night owl.” Melissa commented as she handed Derek some waffles that she had just finished making for him. He accepted gratefully and agreed that he too was a night owl before she began scolding Stiles about it being eleven am already. There was a fondness to the exchange as Stiles rolled his eyes and Derek could tell that they were used to this behaviour. 

“It’s gingerbread time!” Paige exclaimed in excitement at Stiles stood next to her to help with put the roof on top of her house.

“I know, I could smell it all the way upstairs!” he told her, joining her enthusiasm with his own and they began to decorate their house together. 

After he finished eating Derek helped for a while but Stiles shooed him away for eating more gumdrops than he was putting on the house so he escaped to the living room to do some writing by the fireplace.

Once the gingerbread houses were finished they packaged them all up in cellophane (except for Paige’s creation) and got them ready to take to the market to be raffled off.

Once the rest of the family had headed off to deliver them, Stiles went in search of his laptop and then joined Derek in the living room.

“Hey,” he said settling himself down on the arm of the chair where Derek had taken up residence beside the Christmas tree again. “Moment of truth.” He told him in excitement as he pushed his laptop in front of the screen of Derek’s which he thankfully moved swiftly out of the way before Stiles could knock it out of his hold.

Derek’s eyes widened in surprise as he took in the screen before him, there was his name at the top of the screen and all of his books and reviews. He was so impressed that he couldn’t speak and Stiles, of course, had to fill the silence.

“Ta-da!” He exclaimed flailing his hands a little in a vague approximation of jazz hands and looked expectantly at Derek for his reaction.

“You put up the review of my essay,” Derek told him, pleased and surprised that Stiles had remembered their conversation and decided to include his favourite piece of writing on the site. This website was incredible and he told Stiles so with a broad smile.

Stiles explained how the system he had used worked and that he could easily change or add things himself when he wanted to, and then he left him to explore the site by himself as he went out for a run. Derek had given him a sceptical look at that, but Stiles assured him that it wasn’t something he made a habit of, however when he was home he liked to get out in the town and burning off some extra Christmas calories couldn’t hurt.

~~**~~

Stiles was feeling tired but exhilarated and he made a promise to himself to try to make a habit of this more often as he enjoyed it more than he remembered, but he was winding down his run as he neared the centre of town. He was about to pause for a Coffee before turning back toward his parent’s home when he caught sight of Isaac and Jackson across the street beside a black sedan.

Stiles stopped and wondered for a moment if he should go over and say hi, he would rather not but out of politeness he probably should. Before he could make a decision he heard their voices get louder and realised that they were arguing and stood awkwardly for a moment, frozen on the sidewalk unable to avoid listening.

“I just feel like you were lying to me the whole time,” Jackson said loudly turning to open the back door to the car that was obviously waiting to take him somewhere.

“No, I wasn’t lying. That’s not true at all.” Isaac tried to argue but Stiles could see his heart wasn’t in it.

“I think your parents hate me!”

“They don’t hate you.” Isaac’s response was the right thing to say, but unfortunately, his tone implied that while they didn’t hate him (which Stiles was sure was true because he had never seen Mr Rocky or Miss Meredith hate anyone - they were far too southern and polite for that) they didn’t exactly like him either.

“Look you don’t have to leave,” Isaac said after Jackson had rolled his eyes with a scoff and gotten halfway into the car. “Where are you gonna go, Jackson, you gonna go home? Come on you can… stay.” He finished with a sigh as Jackson slammed the door or his taxi and Isaac stood on the sidewalk and watched as he drove away before he turned in frustration and noticed Stiles, who was still frozen on the sidewalk watching the train wreck occur.

He waved awkwardly when Isaac shrugged at him and after checking the road was clear he jogged over to check that Isaac was okay.

“Hey, everything okay?” He asked with a grimace. Probably completely the wrong thing to say since obviously everything wasn’t okay but he didn’t know exactly what to say in this situation.

When Isaac just looked uncomfortable Stiles had to ask. 

“What happened?”

“We uh, we broke up. And he didn’t wanna stay.”

“Oh, Isaac I’m sorry,” Stiles told him, though this much he had deduced for himself. They why of it was a little more difficult to figure out though.

“It’s okay. I don’t know what I was thinking, bringing him here. We’d only been dating a little while and I just, I didn’t want to be alone on the holidays. I’ve really missed you Stiles, and I brought Jackson here as a distraction.” Isaac looked down at his shoes and scuffed his feet on the floor as he tucked his hands into his pockets making his ridiculously long arms look even longer than usual as he admitted this, and Stiles couldn’t believe his ears.

“Well, I mean, full disclosure I brought Derek here for the same reason,” Stiles told him, wanting to make him feel better because he couldn’t help that he still cared for the guy regardless of what happened between them.

“What?” He looked up in surprise at Stiles admission.

“Yeah, I mean I wasn’t gonna bring anyone until I found out that you were.” He continued, not sure why he was still talking except that he had always had trouble keeping his mouth shut.

“Really?”

“Yeah.” Stiles offered with a shrug, hoping he had at least made his old friend feel better about his break-up so close to Christmas. But then Isaac gave him a considering look and suddenly Stiles wondered if he had said too much.

“Well, I mean, I’m not really with Jackson, and you’re not really with Derek. Maybe we should…?”

“No, no, no,” Stiles interrupted him and despite the fact that Isaac was giving him that puppy dog face that had always been his kryptonite he found he wasn’t tempted at all. In part, because he really felt that things between he and Derek were starting to go somewhere, but also because he knew now that Isaac had been right all those months ago.

“No, Isaac, you know we’re not good for each other, come on. You were right about that.”

“You’re right.” He agreed after a moment, but Stiles couldn’t help but feel that he wasn’t really as accepting of that as he would have liked.

“Well, I’m sorry I made you bring Derek.” He said in the end, and Stiles shook his head with a chuckle.

“Well, maybe things worked out like they were supposed to .” He answered, not wanting to go into how the situation had changed since they had come here and rub it in Isaac’s face so soon after his break-up.

“Yeah. I’ll see you later then.” Isaac said clearly noticing the way Stiles had turned a little away ready to head back towards home and see Derek, who he suddenly appreciated even more than he had before leaving the house.

~~**~~

“Hey, Daddio.” Stiles greeted as he found his dad in the front yard to the side of the house as he got back from his run. He was happy to see him, he felt like they hadn’t gotten to spend that much time together the last couple of days and he had missed his dad since moving back to New York.

His Dad greeted him with a grin which he knew he had inherited from his father and he came closer to see what he was doing as he hadn’t stopped to give him a hug.

“Hey kiddo, you just get back from a run?” 

“Yeah. What are you doing?” His dad had obviously been cutting logs for the fireplace and was stacking them up so he jumped in to help.

“Hey don’t bend over, Let me help you.” He knelt down by the stack of wood to move them over into neat piles before his dad threw his back out.

“Okay then,” John said with a chuckle, Stiles always did worry about him too much but he didn’t begrudge him helping so he let him have at it. “I do love having you home for Christmas, kiddo.”

“Well, I love being home with you,” Stiles told him, allowing a little more sentiment than usual because of the holidays.

“You know Melissa and I are really proud of you, right? Your Mom would be too. You seem to be in a good place, you just have contentment to you that you didn’t have the last time you were home. That’s all any parent wants to see, you’re a smart kid and you’ve done well in life with that, but it’s that heart you have that’s your greatest gift.”

“Thank you,” Stiles replied after a moment, quieter than usual and not glancing up from the wood so that he wouldn’t see his eyes filling up with tears at the mention of his mother. After he took a deep breath and got his emotions under control he looked up at his dad with a smile and said: “ Don’t get all sappy on me Dad.” They laughed together and the moment was over and they chatted about everyday topics for a while to regain some sense of balance.

~~**~~

After helping his Dad and taking a quick shower Stiles took a seat on his bed for a minute and tried to process what he had talked to Isaac about. It was incredible that they had done more or less the same thing, but that it had turned out so differently for each of them. It seemed like Jackson had really struggled to be a part of Isaac’s family Christmas, whereas Derek had slipped into their holiday seamlessly and had spent the whole day today with the Stilinski’s while Stiles hadn’t even been around.

While he was still gathering his thoughts his phone began to ring and he smiles as he saw the caller ID.

“Hey, Lydia.”

“Hi” She whispered back at him.

“Hi” he whispered too on instinct “why are we whispering?”

“I’m hiding! If Jordan’s aunt finds me she’s going to make me help with dinner and then quiz me on why we don’t have children yet.” The idea of powerful Lydia hiding was so funny that Stiles struggled to stifle his laughter but despite her current situation he fully believed she would rip his balls off the next time he saw her if he gave in so he managed to control himself.

“Okay, why am I whispering?” He asked instead, continuing to keep his voice low.

“I didn’t ask you to whisper, you just started whispering.”

“Oh, okay.” He said at a normal volume, feeling silly now.

“Merry Christmas.” He said since they hadn’t spoken in a while.

“Merry Christmas. Listen I can’t talk long so how is everything going? Update me.”

“Okay well, the Christma Market had been great.” He started on a safe topic, realizing that he should probably check in with Lydia about what was happening between him and Derek before things went any further. He wasn’t too worried, I mean she did set them up before, but he still felt like he should tell her before things went any further.

“Your brother is, a surprisingly good dancer.” He hedged, easing into it. “ Isaac is Isaac.”

“Did something happen?” She asked him excitedly, clearly taking more joy in his Christmas drama than he was.

“He broke up with his boyfriend.” He informed her, knowing that was exactly the kind of scandal she wanted to hear about.

“Oh wow, really?”

“Yeah, it’s definitely been, different than I expected.”

“How so?”

“Well, how would you feel if your brother and I, were maybe more than friends?” He asked carefully, fully prepared for her to over-react. Which she did in fine fashion.

“Oh my god!!!” She squealed and Stiles heard Jordan in the background calling out for her, she had obviously been discovered wherever she was hiding.

“Shoot, Jordan just found me.” She confirmed.

“Lydia, babe, I need back-up out there. My mom is already harassing me about us having babies.” Stiles heard him telling her in the background.

“Listen, I’ve got to go.”

“Okay, well I love you both, Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas. And I want to hear all the details. Well, not all the details because he’s my brother. Oh my gosh, you’re with my brother!!”

That was the last thing Stiles heard as Jordan obviously grabbed her phone and forced her to hang up as he was saying goodbye. That had gone about as well as he could have hoped for. He hadn’t really worried she wouldn’t approve but he loved Lydia and he would never do anything to jeopardise their friendship so he was glad that he didn’t have to worry about that.

He pulled himself together and then checking the time he went in search of Derek so that they could leave for the bonfire together. He was looking forward to spending the evening together since they had spent much of the day apart. He wondered if he should worry about being so dependant on Derek, but decided that since they had only just begun to admit to their feelings for each other he could be excused for the time being.

~~***~~

“You’ve reached the voicemail of Kelly Harper. Please leave a message.”

“Hi Kelly, it’s Derek. Uh listen, I’m not gonna be able to write this book for you after all. Things have gotten, kind of complicated and um, it just doesn’t feel right anymore. Okay, I’ll speak to you after the holidays. Merry Christmas.”

Derek wrapped up his call just before Stiles appeared next to him with a cup of hot cider and wearing a maroon jumper that was fitting for the season but also contrasting well with his colouring and made him look delectable. 

“Hey. You look great.” Derek said with a smile as they turned and walked together to the campfire. They sat on a large and strangely comfortable log big enough for the two of them to sit side by side. All around them sat Stiles’ and Isaacs extended family and friends on different foldable chairs and logs circled around the small campfire in the centre of the clearing. The woods were full of a soft smokey haze that gave everything a somewhat dreamlike quality and as they sat there chatting and laughing Derek felt like they were in their own little world.

Stiles moved across the clearing to grab some food from the table set up with snacks and drinks and paused for a moment to catch up with his cousin who was hovering nearby. Before he could escape back to Derek’s side he felt a hand on his shoulder. Isaac had been watching him with Derek all evening, but he had been able to ignore it because he was so wrapped up in the amazing man next to him.

“Hey Stiles, sorry can we uh, can we talk for a minute?” He asked nodding away from the group to an open area where they could talk privately. Stiles wasn’t sure if he wanted to, he would rather head back to Derek, but he got the sense that this was a conversation he was going to have to have at some point so he decided that putting it off wouldn’t help anyone.

“Sure, okay.” He followed Isaac but didn’t take the hand he was holding out in invitation, he didn’t want to send the wrong signal. As they walked away he heard Scott suggesting a sing-along and pulling a guitar from behind him to start them off. He wasn’t sure when Scott had learned to play the guitar and this might be a sight to see but he would have to wait until after this conversation.

“What’s up?” Stiles asked as they turned to face one another, though he suspected he knew exactly what was ‘up’.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about what you said earlier, about us. I think you’re wrong.” Isaac started, moving a bit closer to Stiles and giving him a fond look. Stiles immediately began shaking his head, there wasn’t any way this conversation could end that wouldn’t go bad. 

“And I want you to stay here with me.” He finished and Stiles stared for a moment in disbelief at the somewhat crazy man who was currently pulling his hand through his thick curls, a nervous habit that betrayed how he was really feeling despite his confident words.

“Isaac, come on.” Stiles said pleadingly, willing Isaac not to put him in this position.

“It’s always been you and me.”

“No, it hasn’t,” Stiles said finally, realising he wasn’t going to be able to let Isaac down easily, he had tried that earlier and it clearly hadn’t had the desired effect.

“I’ll move to New York.” He offered starting to sound somewhat desperate now. “I think we owe it to ourselves to give this another shot. I mean, we’re good together.”

Stiles glanced over to the family members by the fire, they were singing a Christmas carol together as Scott played the guitar and surprisingly Derek was singing along and reading the lyrics from over Melissa’s shoulder. Suddenly Stiles realised what it was that was different between him and Isaac, and he knew how to get across the point he was trying to make.

“Isaac, what’s my favourite tea?” He asked, thinking of how thoughtful and considerate Derek had been even when Stiles hadn’t realised it himself.

“What, is this some kind of test?”

“No, it’s just a question.” Stiles told him with an expectant look.

“Okay, it’s uh, it’s Chai right?”

Stiles shook his head and tried not to scoff too obviously, but clearly, it was written all over his face because Isaac looked irritated. “It’s not Chai.”

“What? I don’t remember your favourite tea and now you think we’re not...”

“Isaac, you don’t listen to me. You don’t! I’m with Derek now.”

“Yeah but you only brought Derek here to make me jealous!” Isaac said spitefully his voice rising a little. Stiles glanced towards the gathering across from them but no one seemed to have noticed.

“I did, at first. But it’s different.” Stiles tried to explain, but once again Isaac didn’t want to listen. Had he always been like this? Had Stiles really been so blind he hadn’t noticed that this was always an issue between them?

“Look I know you think that we’re not right for each other, but I can’t help but think you’re wrong about this.” Isaac barrelled ahead, taking nothing from Stiles words and reaching out to put his hands on each of Stiles arms to hold him there.

“I’m sorry, but I really think I have something special with him.” Stiles tried again to be heard, pulling his arms from Isaacs reach and glancing over to Derek smiling and laughing with his family, wishing that he were there right now instead of here having this seemingly endless conversation with a man who didn’t want to hear his words.

Then while he was distracted by longing to be anywhere but here with Isaac, the tall blonde raised his voice far louder than the rest of their conversation and dropped a bomb right in the middle of Stiles’ Christmas.

“Yeah, but you and Derek are in a fake relationship!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BAM!! Sorry for the cliffhanger there guys, but at least you only have to wait until tomorrow to see the fallout of Isaac's explosion!!


	10. The Storm after the Calm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So now the secret is out, what will Stiles' family think? And how will this affect our couple's budding romance?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading, for the comments and kudos! I just finished writing the final chapter so it's a straight shot to Christmas Eve now. I can't wait for you all to see how things turn out.

After that rather dramatic exclamation, an eerie silence had fallen on the whole gathering. It was only for a few moments, but though people picked their conversations back up the jovial atmosphere was gone and Stiles thought it would be best if they just got out of there. The car ride home was tense, to say the least, and Stiles couldn’t believe no one had asked him about Isaac’s outburst yet.

Scott and Allison had headed straight home, so Stiles only had to avoid Melissa and his Dad on the way into the house and they had been occupied unpacking things for the Market so he had managed to sneak away to his room to get changed. About twenty minutes later everything had gone quiet, so Stiles crept downstairs to see if Derek was still awake.

Stiles knocked quietly on the door to the guest room, although Derek had been up late for most of the trip so far he wanted to make sure that he didn’t wake him if he wasn’t this evening.

“Come in?”

Derek said with only a little surprise. Honestly, after the way they left the bonfire, he had been expecting a visit from Stiles to talk things over.

“Hi. Can I come in?”

“Yeah, quiet car ride huh?” Derek joked, trying to lighten the situation a little and hoping that Stiles wasn’t too upset.

“You think?” He laughed and Derek was relieved he didn’t seem to be concerned. 

“I’m really sorry. I just feel so stupid, I don’t know why I said anything about you to Isaac. Well, no, I do. He was feeling bad about Jackson leaving and I was just trying to make him feel better. I didn’t think for a second that he would throw it back in my face.”

“It’s okay, you don’t have anything to be sorry for.” Trying to reassure him Derek gave him a soft smile. His instinct was to get up and pull Stiles into his arms, but he wasn’t sure they were there yet so he forced himself to stay in the desk chair.

Stiles was relieved that Derek wasn’t mad at him, he’d worried on the journey back if the way Isaac had announced their arrangement would make Derek think that Stiles still felt that way. After their moment in the garden last night, nothing could be further from the truth and he really didn’t want Derek to think that he wanted to take any of that back. Especially since they hadn’t spent a lot of time together today and there hadn’t been a follow-up kiss, Stiles himself was feeling a little insecure about where things were headed.

“No, but now things are really awkward!”

Derek nodded in agreement. They certainly were, and he had no idea how Stiles planned to explain this to his family. He hoped they wouldn’t be too upset with him, but since Stiles didn’t seem too concerned about their reactions beyond the awkwardness he was trying not to worry about it too much.

“Yeah, it is.”

“I don’t wanna go back out there!” Stiles told him, walking further into the room and closing the door behind him. Derek was encouraged by this move. He hadn’t been mad that Stiles had told Isaac about their arrangement, but he had been a little concerned about what exactly that meant for the two of them. His reaction to Isaac’s announcement hadn’t been particularly favourable so Derek took that as a good sign, but Stiles still wanting to spend time with him was even better.

“I mean, I don’t know how to spin this with my family!”

“Well, maybe there’s nothing to spin.” Derek ventured “I like you, you like me.” Stiles had moved closer to him and Derek reached out to take his hands and pull him in, feeling braver than he had in years.

Stiles gave him an encouraging smile and leaned forward, as Derek stood from the chair to give him better access to hold Stiles properly as he fully intended to pull him into another kiss. He had been resisting all evening, but finally, they were alone and the moment seemed right so he brought them closer together and Stiles glanced down a little shyly. Then suddenly his demeanour changed and his eyebrows drew together in a frown as he looked down at the desk Derek had been working at and when he looked back up again he didn’t seem to be as light.

“What’s this?” He questioned, not quite angry but definitely not happy any longer.

Derek glanced down and saw the paper on the desk and shrugged, still not quite sure why Stiles was upset. “Just some work stuff.”

He looked back down again and began to read aloud from the list of items designed for Derek’s ghostwriting gig.

“Dance under the stars. Flee from danger together. Teach a game. Give her a flower. First kiss in a special place?” As he read Stiles voice was raising slightly and becoming more irritated, and suddenly Derek realised that perhaps he would think that he had been manipulating Stiles somehow.

“Yeah, it’s for this book I’m ghostwriting. Just some stuff the characters as supposed to do.” He tried, hoping to shrug off the correlations between the list and their time together since getting to Louisiana so that Stiles wouldn’t read too much into it.

“But we did all these things,” Stiles replied, still looking confused and a little annoyed. Clearly, Derek’s distraction technique did not work.

“Yeah, but most of that was just a coincidence,” Derek told him honestly. He really wanted Stiles to understand that he hadn’t planned the things that had happened between them. 

“No. No, you didn’t just stumble on a flower, you made that for me. You made this happen.” Stiles was looking much angrier now, and he had Derek there. 

That last one he had decided to make happen, he really wanted to make Stiles feel special. Maybe it had been stupid, but he couldn’t regret it since it had been the moment that had helped them to open up to each other admit that they wanted this facade to be more of a reality. Still, he scrambled to explain, but unfortunately talking on the spot wasn’t something he was particularly good at.

“Okay, I’m realising that this sounds bad. But it’s not what it looks like.” He began, hoping that Stiles would give him another chance.

He looked down at the list again and suddenly his cheeks flushed in anger as he read something else from the list.

“Is this… ‘make her fall in love’?” Damnit, Derek really needed to get rid of that list. He wasn’t even writing the book any more.

“Yeah, but that’s not about you.” 

“So what is this just like a checklist that you were trying to get done while you were here?”

“No. Of course not.”

“Is this why you came here?” Stiles continued, barely pausing to take a breath. “I feel really stupid right now.”

Technically that was true, but Derek wasn’t about to tell Stiles that. He was already so angry and he didn’t want to explain badly and make things even worse.

“No, don’t, why do you feel stupid?”

“Because last night, that was real to me!”

“Yeah, it was real to me too,” Derek said, starting to get desperate now as he could see this wasn’t going to be easy to resolve with Stiles. He didn’t even seem to be listening to Derek defend himself as he had already made his mind up. Derek wanted to be angry about that, but honestly he knew he hadn’t been forthcoming about his reasons for being here, and he had bailed on their date earlier in the year, so he hadn’t exactly given Stiles a plethora of reasons to trust him.

“No, you know what, just save it alright.” He said moving towards the door and away from Derek.

“Stiles, wait, will you just slow down.”

“You should go and stay at Scott’s. There’s a flight out tomorrow.” Stiles said sadly and with that he was gone, closing the door behind him and leaving Derek staring after him in disbelief. How had everything gone so spectacularly wrong so fast?

Derek waited a moment, wondering if Stiles would come back, or if he should go after him. But then he realised that he had no idea what he would even say if he followed, and anything he did now would most likely just make matters worse. So he took a deep breath and turned to pack his things up to head over to Scott’s. He’d always felt like Stiles was too good for him, and how badly he had screwed this up just proved that, so maybe it was for the best if he just left. The least he could do now was respect Stiles’ wishes.

~~***~~

“Stiles?” There was a knock at his bedroom door and someone called his name but Stiles was face down on top of his duvet so he couldn’t hear very well. He’d already text Scott to come and pick up Derek, but maybe he was coming to try to talk before he left.

“Oh Derek, I don’t wanna talk.” He said, sitting up and wiping his face. If Derek came in any way he didn’t want it to be obvious he had been crying.

“Mischief, it’s us,” John said softly as he poked his head around the door frame, Melissa right behind him.

“Hi, baby. Scott told us what happened. They’re taking Derek to stay the night at their place.” Melissa told him when she saw he was sitting up, and they both walked further into the room. 

Mel sat down at the end of the bed, while John hovered at the foot of the bed looking uncertain. Stiles got the sense that he wanted to make sure his son was okay, but talking about feelings wasn’t easy for him. Still Stiles appreciated the effort he was making.

“Oh guys, I’m really sorry.” He began, realising he owed them an explanation after the events of this evening.

“Son, don’t be sorry,” John said, moving around the bed to put a hand on Stiles’ shoulder.

“No, but I lied to you, and I ruined Christmas, and I just, I don’t even know what I was thinking,” Stiles told him, feeling ridiculous as his eyes began to well up again just thinking about how badly he had screwed things up.

Melissa reached out to put her hand on top of Stiles on the bed covers and he looked up at her feeling pitiful.

“You didn’t ruin anything. And you were thinking that you wanted to get away from all that drama.” She tried to reassure him.

“Yeah. That really backfired on me.” Stiles said with a laugh, feeling marginally better that at least his parents weren’t mad at him about this.

“Yeah, it did didn’t it?” John told him coming around to lean down to Stiles and give him a hug. “Now you listen to your father. I know you Stiles, I know your heart. This is just something that you felt you had to do. And you don’t have to be sorry about anything.”

“He just seemed so different. I really thought I could trust him.” Stiles told them leaning down to rest his head on Melissa’s knee in despair. 

“Let me ask you a question?” Melissa said, “If it wasn’t supposed to be anything serious, why are you so upset?” Unfortunately, Stiles didn’t have an answer for that. They had barely even admitted their feelings to each other, they had only kissed once. Why was he so angry and sad that Derek hadn’t been as interested in their budding romance as he had.

“Urgh!” Stiles exclaimed with a vigorous shrug of his shoulders before collapsing back down on the bed in exasperation.

“I don’t know!” He said finally, his voice muffled in the covers.

~~***~~  
The next morning was Christmas Eve and Stiles was having trouble getting into the Christmas spirit. His dad had brought him some hot chocolate and they were sitting together in the living room by the fire with Melissa. But try as he might to listen to their conversation about the holiday he couldn’t concentrate on anything but what Derek might be doing right now. He didn’t know exactly what time his flight was, but Scott had said he would let Stiles know when had left for the airport, so he was checking his phone constantly  
.   
It seemed ridiculous, but there was still a part of him that was hoping that Derek would show up, with some explanation that would make everything better. He was about as heartbroken as he’d ever felt, and it may have happened quickly but he had really felt like they had something good. Yesterday he had woken up so hopeful and full of joy, and today it just felt like all the joy had been sucked out of him by that list.

~~***~~

Derek moved one of the giant candy canes back out of the covered area to the bottom of the steps, then he went over to the table set up and started unloading gingerbread houses from the box sitting there as Scott and Allison worked on another box full on a table nearby. Christmas wasn’t seeming nearly so appealing today as it had yesterday, and he honestly couldn’t believe how much things had changed. Everything at this market had seemed so magical when he’d been here with Stiles, but as nice as it was it just didn’t seem the same now.

“Thanks for coming to help out,” Allison said, pulling Derek from his distracted thoughts.

“No problem. Honestly sitting around and waiting for my flight didn’t seem productive.” Derek responded. He was just glad that Scott and Allison didn’t seem to be holding the situation against him. Perhaps Stiles had been kind and not told them all the details of their falling out, but still, Scott knew his brother was upset and that Derek had something to do with it. If someone had upset Lydia like that, he didn’t think he would be as welcoming as Scott had been to him.

Just then Scott said something that probably went some way to explaining why he wasn’t being openly hostile with Derek.

“Well, if it helps, I’ve never seen Stiles as happy as he was with you.” 

It didn’t help, not really, because Stiles wouldn’t talk to him. He’d never felt happier than when he was with Stiles either, even though it had mostly been platonic it had made him feel lighter and more alive than he could remember being since his parents had died. And he had ruined it, so knowing that he had been able to make Stiles happy for a short while didn’t exactly make him feel better. But he appreciated Scott trying, so he smiled in response and continued loading up the table in front of him as Allison nodded her agreement.

“Thanks. I wish I could have explained myself better. I quit this book that I was working on. And I swear some of these things were just a coincidence.” He attempted to explain, and from the look on their faces they had, in fact, heard the whole story from Stiles.

“I believe you.” Scott said with a grin, “And it’s not so bad you know? If you really have feelings for him.” 

That was true, and he did, he’d never felt this way about anyone. He just wished the Stiles realised that he didn’t want that amazing man thinking that Derek didn’t care about him.

“I have to tell him, I need to make sure that he knows,” Derek said firmly, making a decision. He wasn’t going to leave until Stiles had heard him out. Probably it was too late to win him back, but he was going to try. And if nothing else he was going to make damn sure that Stiles knew that he cared about him more than any book, he loved him and he was going to make sure that was clear before he gave up.

“I’m gonna need your help.” He told them, an idea forming in his head. A grand gesture would certainly go a long way towards getting Stiles to hear him out. “You’re Mom’s too.”

Derek looked over to them hopefully, and Scott picked up his phone from the table and held it to his ear.

“Mom? We’re gonna need your help.”


	11. Profess Love in a Passionate Speech

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Derek enlists the help of Stiles' family and sets up a trail for him to follow ending with a speech that he hopes will bring them back together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Almost there! Just one more chapter after this. I hope everyone enjoys this chapter.
> 
> Thank you for reading along, and for the kudos and comments - you all have made my Christmas extra special this year.

Stiles came downstairs that afternoon to find Melissa and John hovering at the foot of the staircase. John was looking confused while Melissa was smiling at whatever she was hearing on the phone call she was currently taking.

“No, that’s fine. I’ll be right there, and I’ll sort out… the other thing.” She said, trailing off a little as Stiles appeared before ending the call and holding out a hand to stop him before he reached the bottom of the stairs.

“Stiles, go back upstairs and put on that nice shirt that you brought with you, and your smartest trousers too.” She commanded and he stopped in shock, completely confounded at her order.

“Go on. Your Dad is going to bring you.” She finished turning to grab her coat and telling John that she would call him with all the details of where he was to bring Stiles and when, and then she was gone and the two men stood there frozen in surprise.

After a moment John shook himself out of it and turned to Stiles, who was still stood in the middle of the stairs. “Well go on then son, I don’t think it’s wise to question Melissa when she’s so set on something. I’ll come and get you when I know what’s going on.”

~~***~~

Derek had spent the afternoon working with Scott and Allison to set up everything for his grand gesture and they were finally starting to get results. Fortunately, Melissa had been more than willing to come down and help out once she had heard what they were up to, and Derek had a nice suit in his bag in case he needed it. He wasn’t sure why Lydia had insisted he bring it, there didn’t seem to be a lot of call for formal occasions here in Louisiana, but he was glad now that she had. 

Scott popped his head into the back of the Christmas Tree Maze and checked how he was doing.

“I just called Dad and he’s bringing Stiles now, are you all set?”

“Yeah, I think so,” he replied, turning to pin the last piece of paper to the Christmas tree closest to the exit. He took another look at it, thinking about what he was about to do, but he had no doubts. 

“Okay, let’s go!” Allison called from outside, she sounded hurried so Derek assumed that meant Stiles was arriving so he turned to take one last look at everything set up and then moved with Scott outside to wait for Stiles.

It was weird, hiding around the corner from the exit to the maze, waiting while Stiles was walking through it. There was no sound to tell him exactly what was happening, and he had no way of knowing if Stiles was happy or annoyed at the things he was reading. Derek stood there feeling like time was passing as slow as molasses, and watched to see when Scott gave him the signal that Stiles had reached the final tree in the path they had set up. When Stiles’ big brother gave him the go-ahead, he took a deep breath and stepped around the corner to face the man of his dreams.

~~***~~

Stiles was totally confused. His dad had pushed him to go and get showered and changed, then they had sat there for at least an hour waiting. They had tried to make conversation, but since Stiles didn’t know what was going on and he couldn’t think about anything else, it was very difficult to concentrate on anything else. They ended up watching It’s a Wonderful Life and avoiding the topic altogether until John’s phone finally rang and apparently they were being summoned.

He was hoping that this surprise didn’t have anything to do with Isaac, concerned that since the fall out of everything last night perhaps he would think he was still in with a chance. And when they arrived at the market his heart sank, because this place was somewhere that seemed like Isaac would ask him to come and meet to talk. 

Any hope he might have had that Derek was trying to surprise him had been dashed when so much time had passed, his flight would have left by now and so that was that. It was over before it had even begun, and Stiles resolved that whatever this ‘surprise’ was he would politely get it over with and then head home to wallow some more. If it did turn out to be Isaac, Stiles was going to let him know in no uncertain terms that things between them were over. 

Whether or not Derek was out of the picture didn’t matter, now that he knew what it was like to be with someone who he felt really understood him he couldn’t go back to Isaac and feel like he was trying to fit into a mould that he wasn’t made for.

They parked the car and Stiles followed his father further into the marketplace before they stopped by the entrance to the Christmas Tree Maze. Stiles was still puzzled as he turned to face his father with a questioning gaze, not at all sure what to expect when he walked in.

“Stiles,” John began, and Stiles could already see that his father was going to give him some classic papa-bear advice, so he settled in to soak it up since he had rarely been wrong before.

“You deserve to be happy. To be with someone who truly loves you, and cherishes you, and listens to you.” He continued, and Stiles wanted to agree, but he hoped that his dad wasn’t referring to Isaac now because this might actually be the first time his pops ever steered him wrong.

“So hear him out, okay?” John finished, finally and Stiles was not really any less confused but his dad gave him a gentle push towards the entrance to the maze and he wasn’t really in any state of mind to argue so he moved forward finally solve the mystery that had been frustrating him all afternoon.

~~***~~

Walking into the front of the maze Stiles could immediately see that the Christmas trees had been rearranged to create a single path, where before there had been choices of one direction or another, there was now a clear lane leading in one direction.

He stepped forward with a furrowed brow and looked around, trying to determine what else might have changed, when suddenly the tree directly to his right caught his eye. It was a dark green fern, covered in silver tinsel and light blue baubles, but what had drawn Stiles attention to it was the large ornaments hanging right at the front of the tree which didn’t match any of the others.

Hanging from the branches was an alligator and a tortoise, carefully crafted in a way that Stiles recognised instantly as Melissa’s handiwork, wearing little red and white Santa hats. Immediately a smile pulled at Stiles’s cheeks, reminded of the moment on the river banks when Derek had ‘rescued’ him, and he noticed behind the ornament a small slip of paper with a hand-written note on it.

_Flee from Danger  
So we didn’t really have to flee from an alligator that day but listening to you speak about your passion for where you came from, this is when I fell in love with your home _.__

__Stiles felt his heart swell, and he blinked back tears as he realised that Derek hadn’t gone home yet. He still wasn’t entirely sure where this was going, but he was willing to see what else the man had to say. Pulling the note from the small wooden peg it was attached by, he took it with him as he moved on further down the path._ _

__Walking further still into the maze, Stiles kept his eyes peeled for the next ornament on his own personal treasure hunt. A few moments later he spotted it, nestled in on the branches of a smaller tree with bright golden decorations._ _

__This time it was a small glass bowl hanging from a long red ribbon, it appeared to be filled with tiny folded pieces of paper and Stiles instantly remembered the night they had spent sharing their Christmas traditions and playing together with his family. That night was the first time he had forgotten, just for a little while, that they were pretending._ _

___Teach a skill or game  
Sharing my family’s traditions with yours, and seeing the love and support from the people who raised you, and made you the man you are today, I fell in love with your family._ _ _

__Stiles had to stop for a moment and take a few deep breaths. It meant so much to him that Derek cared about his family, he loved them all so dearly that he couldn’t imagine any future with someone who didn’t feel the same way._ _

__Next, he came to a plush looking tree with deep purple decorations which held a softer looking ornament that was a blue disc with little stars cut out of it covered in glitter. Stiles couldn’t believe how much effort Derek had gone to, all to remind him of their special moments together. And the idea that he had managed to involve his family in all of this was somehow even more amazing._ _

___Dance under the stars  
When I held you in my arms that night, I knew I never wanted to let you go _.__ _ _

____This one made Stiles’ breath catch in his throat. He had felt very safe and warm when Derek had held him, but he hadn’t been sure that it was mutual and though he wanted to lay his head on Derek’s shoulder he had resisted because he didn’t want to push the boundaries of their arrangement too far._ _ _ _

____Stiles rounded another corner and found a snow-laden tree and silver garlands where there was a miniature version of the paper flower that Derek had made him hanging from one of the branches. He knew without a doubt that he would be wanting to take all of these ornaments home to hang from his Christmas tree._ _ _ _

_____Give him a flower, first kiss in a special place  
Stiles, I meant everything I said to you that night. And if getting romantic advice from a Parker Holliwell novel led me to falling in love with you, well, I would do it over and over again _.__ _ _ _ _

______Stiles felt relief and joy rushing through him. He hadn’t wanted to believe that Derek had been using him, but this whole thing had begun with a charade. And that combined with the fact that they had been planning to go on a date months ago, and Derek had been the one that cancelled, had made Stiles insecure and unsure of himself. He still wanted to hear a full explanation but he was relieved to find that Derek’s words about that night were reassuring enough to allay the worst of his concerns._ _ _ _ _ _

______He stood for a few moments just re-reading the words and brushing his fingers over the text, and then he felt ready to face the next step, whatever that was. Stiles turned once more to find a tree only a few steps away, it was covered in brightly coloured and mismatched ornaments that somehow worked together and in the centre was a large piece of paper pegged to Derek’s note. As Stiles walked closer he realised it was the contract that Lydia had drawn up between them before they came here. The note clipped to it was short and left Stiles turning to look for the man himself._ _ _ _ _ _

_______Profess Love in a Passionate Speech  
The last thing on my list I have left to do. If you’ll let me _.__ _ _ _ _ _ _

________~~***~~_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Derek straightened his tie as he rounded the corner into the maze and immediately drew up short at the sight of Stiles. He could have been wearing a burlap sack and Derek still would have found him attractive, but in his suit with a deep red shirt, he was breathtaking. Still, this was his moment and he had better not screw it up, so he took a deep breath to steady himself and began to walk forward to tell Stiles everything that was on his mind._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“I would have missed out on a lot if my sister hadn’t drafted that contract, Stiles. I never would have gotten to experience a Stilinski Christmas, or hear you play the fiddle, or try gumbo so hot that I actually forgot who I was for ten minutes.” He moved closer to Stiles and reached out to take his hands with a furtive smile. There were tears in both of their eyes but Derek continued talking._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“But most of all, I wouldn’t have gotten to know you. You’re all the good things. Stiles. I’ve never felt more alive or more at home with someone, and I can’t imagine my life without you in it now.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Derek had made his speech exactly as he had planned it, and he took a breath before finishing to see if he could gauge Stiles’ reaction. He didn’t look upset, but Derek couldn’t tell if he was happy or not so he ploughed on deciding that regardless of how it turned out he needed to tell Stiles everything so that he would have no regrets._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“I love you, Stiles. And I know that you asked me to leave, but…”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Derek!” Stiles cut him off, and he caught Derek’s gaze with a smile. “I love you too.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________The admission knocked the breath from them both, but a fraction of a second later they had caught it and fell together for a kiss that had been building since they had stepped off the plane last week. Derek wrapped his strong arms around Stiles broad shoulders and pulled him in as he deepened the kiss further and as Stiles opened his mouth on a gasp, swiftly brushed his tongue into the younger man’s mouth._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________The kiss quickly turned heated and Stiles grasped at Derek’s waist trying to control the instinct to let his hands wander the expanse of his muscular back, then he reluctantly pulled away with a softer parting kiss as he recalled his family was waiting close by to see how Derek’s apology had gone._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________They stared at each other in awe for a moment, revelling in the fact that there were no secrets between them, and then Derek spoke. He felt like he still had one more thing to clear up._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Listen, I called my agent yesterday, before the bonfire, and I’m not writing that book.” He didn’t want Stiles to think he was using him in any way, and he’d decided not to write the book anyway since it seemed too personal now._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Oh stop, you have to!” Stiles surprised him by saying._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“What?” Derek asked he couldn’t believe Stiles would want him to after everything they had been through. This man was always surprising him though, just one of the many things he loved about him, and he was so glad he was free to tell him that now at last._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“You can say it was based on a true story.” Stiles laughed, full of joy and feeling more Christmas spirit than he had in days. Things were going to work out, he could feel it.  
________

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is where the film ends. I have written one more chapter, a short one that is an epilogue because even watching the film I felt like oh I wanted a little bit more! So I decided to write it. I hope you all like it and I'll post it tomorrow probably quite early UK time as it's Christmas Eve and I have guests in the evening.
> 
> EDITED TO ADD: Sorry guys, apparently, there were even more formatting issues than I realised and I managed to duplicate a little part of the story in this chapter! I think I've fixed it now but please let me know if not!


	12. Winter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Epilogue - we catch up with Stiles 12 months later to see if things really did work out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's finally here! Merry Christmas everyone and please enjoy the last chapter! This is a short one to wrap things up so I hope you all enjoy it. 
> 
> Thank you all so much for reading, for your Kudos and kind comments. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas season.

12 months later

Stiles looked around at the Market as he stood at the volunteer booth in the centre. Everything looked much the same as it had last year, the Christmas tree maze was as popular as every year and that made Stiles smile as after last year it was his favourite part of the market. Things had changed a little though, with Stiles’s website and app doing better than they had ever anticipated they had more vendors sign up than usual and were expecting an even larger turn out that the previous year.

Stiles soaked it all up while he had a moment to himself, breathing in the spices and decorations and the fresh air as he thought about how much his life had changed too in the last year.

Isaac stood across the market helping at his father’s grotto and Stiles' mind wandered to their conversation when he had first gotten home. They hadn't spoken after last years outburst, and since Stiles hadn't been home after that until now they didn't get a chance to clear the air. So Stiles had invited Isaac out for a drink once they had both arrived home to give them a chance to talk.

_“Stiles. I'm glad you're home for Christmas. And that you wanted to meet up, I wasn't sure you would want to see me after last year?”_

_“Yeah, well, that's water under the bridge. That's actually why I wanted to see you, I know you’ve probably been feeling bad about it and there's no need. No one was mad, and everything worked out how it was supposed to so, you didn't ruin anything. It's all okay,” Stiles reassured him. He hadn't wanted Isaac to go on feeling bad about things, he knew he had a massive guilt complex._

_“So, you and Derek? Is that still...?” Isaac asked him interested, but without the hopeful look he would have given Stiles last year, it seemed like he really had moved on and Stiles was glad._

_“That's not really your business any more,” He said anyway, knowing that things would get back to him through their families and he would know soon enough, but still wanting to make it clear that he wasn't enough a part of Stiles life now for him to share these things personally. It seemed important to maintain boundaries, just to be safe._

_“Fair enough,” Isaac agreed without a fuss, and with that Stiles felt like they had turned a corner. Hopefully, they could be friendly when he came home to visit, without Isaac getting his hopes up._

_They stayed at the coffee shop a while longer, just chatting about the market and their families while they finished their peppermint hot chocolates, and when they parted Stiles felt a weight lifted from his shoulders that he wouldn't need to worry about seeing him over the next week as they both helped out at the family market. ___

__“Stiles!” A voice called out, pulling him from his thoughts and he turned to greet its owner with a fond smile._ _

__“Hey, Lyd's!” He wrapped her up in a hug and greeted Jordan over her shoulder and then pulling back to put his hands on her small but now noticeable bump. He'd known they were landing a while ago, but since he hadn't been picking them up from the airport himself he wasn't sure what time they would arrive at the market._ _

__“Wow! This place looks amazing.” Lydia told him, turning to take it all in. It had been a few years since she had visited with him at Christmas and it had grown a lot since then. He would have to take her for the full tour when he had time, but first, he had something important to do._ _

__He turned from Lydia to look around to see where her ride from the airport had gotten to, and as he spotted him heading over the little bridge towards them the smile on his face broadened until he thought it might crack from the joy. It had only been a few hours since he'd left to go and pick up Lydia and Jordan, but lately, any moment they weren't together just felt like a moment wasted._ _

__“Derek!” He cried out as his boyfriend finally got closer, and he ran and jumped into his waiting arms wrapping them and his legs around him and forcing the older man to grab him before he dropped to the ground._ _

__“Hi Stiles,” He said with a chuckle, his deep voice close to Stiles’s ear causing a shiver down his spine. Stiles pulled his face back a little and looked him in the eyes, they smiled for a moment before sharing a chaste kiss being mindful of where they were, and then Stiles dropped his legs down to the ground and took a half step back to a more respectable greeting._ _

__“It should not be possible to miss someone so much, especially when they have only been gone for such a short time!” Stiles told him with a false looking frown, he clearly wasn't as upset as he was pretending to be about finding it so difficult to be apart from Derek._ _

__They had moved in together just a couple of months ago when Derek's latest novel had been picked up by a publisher and he'd gotten an advance big enough that they could finally afford a decent place together. Stiles had thought that living in the same space would mean that they would be less inclined to miss one another and that Derek would find all of his habits annoying instead of endearing as he had up until now._ _

__He had been wrong. After a little adjustment, they had found a harmonious way of living together, and for whatever reason, it seemed that the more time they spent together the more time they wanted to spend together._ _

__Of course, they still had their moments, where they wound each other up beyond measure. But now they worked that out a lot faster, and usually ended up in the bedroom making up in short order too._ _

__Things were good, better than they had ever been, and Stiles was so happy that he sometimes felt that he might burst at any minute with it._ _

__The only problem was that since they had arrived back to Louisiana a few days ago Derek had been a little quieter than usual. Stiles thought that it might have had something to do with Isaac being around, but he had sorted things out with him as quickly as possible and told Derek all about it. He had even asked if Derek wanted to come with him, but he declined, saying it would make things more awkward and that he trusted Stiles to handle it on his own._ _

__Stiles hoped it was just the holidays and being so busy, maybe he was preoccupied with a Christmas present, they hadn't exchanged gifts last year so it was possible he was nervous about what he had gotten Stiles? Either way, he hoped things got back to normal soon, or he was going to have to push Derek for answers._ _

__~~***~~_ _

__After they had shown Lydia and Jordan around the market with all of its updates, and Stiles had made sure that they weren't needed for anything else, they had packed up to head back to the Stilinski's house for the evening._ _

__Lydia and Jordan were settled into the spare room, and this year whether it was due to lack of space or a comment on how much John liked Derek (coupled with the fact that Stiles had already had the argument with his dad that since they were living together it was ridiculous, and pointless since Stiles would sneak into Derek's room regardless), they were actually sharing a room._ _

__However, when Stiles had gone upstairs to unpack Derek had disappeared. He wandered around the ground floor of the house looking for him, but found nothing and was confused since they hadn't talked about him needing to go anywhere, and the rest of the family seemed to already be in bed so it was a little late for unplanned excursions._ _

__With a sigh, Stiles turned back to the stairs and decided he would call Derek in a minute to see where he was. Maybe it was some sort of Christmas surprise he was arranging? He hadn't even made it halfway up the stairs before his phone chimed in his hand, signalling a familiar-looking message from Derek._ _

__“Meet me outside on our bench in 20 minutes.”_ _

__~~***~~_ _

__Stiles waited the requested amount of time, barely. He counted down the minutes as he sat at the bottom of the stairs waiting, and the moment that the time had passed he bolted for the front door and barely paused long enough to close it carefully behind him so as not to wake anyone else._ _

__Derek was sitting on the bench, as Stiles had expected him to be, and he had another paper flower in his hands but he didn't hand it to Stiles immediately this time. It had become a tradition of theirs, and Derek had given him one for every month's anniversary that had shared so far, and thinking about it Stiles realised that since it was now past midnight today would be their one year anniversary from their first kiss in this very spot._ _

__“Stiles,” Derek began, still not handing over the flower, but instead reaching out to take Stiles' hand. He looked a little nervous and Stiles was beginning to wonder just what kind of surprise this was going to be._ _

__“A year ago today, we met on this bench and shared our first kiss. Things weren't exactly smooth sailing right away after that, but I have never for a moment regretted that kiss or everything that it led to. I love you Stiles, and I feel like no matter how much time I have with you that it will never be enough. So for our anniversary, I wanted to come back to the place where things changed for us, and give you another flower to see if maybe it might be time to change things again?”_ _

__Stiles felt tears welling up in his eyes as he reached his hand out to take the flower from Derek's outstretched hand, looking closer it seemed to be made from the paperwork of their Christmas Contract from last year, and nestled in the middle of the flower was a white gold ring with small amber gems embedded into it. Stiles reached for it with a gasp and looked back up to Derek who's eyes were now also filled with tears._ _

__“Stiles, you are the best thing that has ever happened to me, and I want to spend the rest of our lives making you feel the same way. Will you marry me?” Derek's voice was barely above a whisper, and despite the tears, Stiles could see in his eyes that he was scared, this was a big step and they had only been together a year, so he wasn't sure that Stiles would say yes._ _

__

__But he couldn't help thinking that as crazy as it may have been, had Derek asked him this question last year he might have been tempted to say yes even then. He had never felt this way about anyone and he couldn't wait to wear that ring._ _

__“Yes. Of course. I would love to marry you!” Stiles replied, as soon as he had caught his breath enough to speak, and Derek's face broke into a smile so wide that his whole being seemed to light up from within. He leaned forward to push the ring onto Stiles' finger and then drew him closer for a gentle kiss, pressing their lips together softly. It was perfect, and if Stiles had planned it himself he couldn't have done it better._ _

__His mind was already whizzing with ideas for a Christmas wedding, and he wondered if Derek would mind doing it on their anniversary at the Market. It would mean waiting a year, but these things took time to plan. Somehow, given his choice of proposal spot, Stiles didn't think Derek would mind a bit. This was where they had fallen in love and it seemed right to start the rest of their lives together here too._ _


End file.
